Why we’re backing padel in the North East

Five years ago, most people in Newcastle had never heard of padel. Now try getting a court at seven o’clock on a weeknight.

The sport has gone from curiosity to one of the fastest-growing in Britain in roughly the time it takes to get a new building through planning. That speed is the whole story. It’s why padel sits in our Venture & Capital portfolio, next to the boxing gyms and other local sports businesses we back.

The numbers are hard to argue with

When the Lawn Tennis Association took over the running of padel in 2019, around 15,000 people in Britain played it. By the end of 2024, just over 400,000 had played at least once in the previous year.¹

Awareness nearly doubled in twelve months. In early 2025, 43% of British adults had heard of padel, up from 23% a year before. More than eight million people say they’d like to try it.

The courts haven’t kept up. In May 2025, the LTA counted 893 of them across the whole of Britain. That’s a lot of building in a short time, and it still isn’t enough. When eight million people want to try something and there are fewer than a thousand places to do it, you don’t need a spreadsheet to see the gap.

Why the North East is behind

Padel took off first in London and the South East, where there’s more money chasing new leisure ideas and more days you can play outside. Up here, the weather settles the argument. An outdoor court at the coast in February is a hard sell, so clubs need to be indoors. Indoor courts cost more to build, and they need the right building.

When a new court opened at Hexham Tennis Club in autumn 2024, a Northumberland county councillor called it only the third court in the North East.² More have opened since, but the region is still playing catch-up with the rest of the country.

A padel club is a property decision

This is the part that interests us most. A padel club needs a big, open, high-ceilinged space, ideally close to where people live and work, with parking and somewhere to grab a drink afterwards. That describes a lot of the industrial and warehouse space around the region’s towns.

We already own and manage commercial property, from warehouses to leisure venues, so we look at a club the way we’d look at any building. What does it cost to fit out? Who’s going to use it? And what does it earn across a whole week, not just on busy evenings?

Then there’s filling the courts. Our in-house marketing team runs growth for every business in the group, and padel is a very easy thing to market. It’s sociable, it looks great on camera, and people bring their mates. Get the first hundred regulars right and they’ll bring you the next hundred.

Clubs that belong to their community

The best clubs are more than rows of courts. They run junior sessions, leagues, beginners’ nights and cheap off-peak slots, so people can try the sport without signing up to a membership. According to the LTA, more than three-quarters of padel venues already do some kind of community work, from school partnerships to free coaching.¹

That matters to us. We put money into grassroots sport because a good local club is one of the best things a town can have. A well-run padel club earns its place commercially and gives people somewhere to go on a Tuesday night. We don’t see those as competing aims.

What comes next

We’ll keep backing local operators, and we’re looking for more sites, especially buildings that could be turned into indoor courts across Tyneside, Wearside and County Durham.

If you run a padel club in the North East and want to grow, or you own a building that could hold four to six courts, we’d like to hear from you.

Sources

1. Lawn Tennis Association, “Over 400,000 players: LTA unveils latest figures on growth of padel in Britain”, May 2025. ltapadel.org.uk
2. Northumberland County Council, “New padel courts for popular racquet sport to open soon”, September 2024. northumberland.gov.uk