Padel club coach Will Ostling believes there could be up to 5000 courts in the next three years, as the sport continues to grow across the country.
Ostling, originally from Sweden, thinks the sport can compete with other recreational sporting activities like tennis and squash, with sessions provided for amateurs and pros.
“It’s just driving in players, people that have played or not played before, and providing courts for everybody.”
“When I started working in England three years ago, I was from Sweden, where it’s already huge, and when I came here, there were 200 courts, and now there’s 1000, and in the next three years, I would predict there will be up to 5000. Even as a company we are opening seven locations in the next six months, so it’s going really, really fast.”
“A lot of people will come from tennis; some say that padel is the annoying little brother of tennis, and it’s really taking over with more padel courts being built on tennis courts, but there are also others from sports like badminton and squash.”
With padel becoming one of the biggest growing sports around, Ostling is excited to see where the sport will be in the next couple of years, with early projections looking positive for the new craze.
“I don’t really know where it will go; we’ve just got to ride the wave, really, but it’s an easy sport to get in, and it’s very accessible.”
But it is not just the sporting impact; Ostling believes the social element of the sport is also an important part of it, and it makes people want to come back thanks to the club’s different events.
“Padel is more than just a sport; it’s good socially, it’s so good physically, and it’s really social, and you can see it with people in the café after playing and the night events and tournaments we do.”
