Adding Padel to Your Tennis Club UK: The 2026 Committee Guide
By Gary, founder of RacketRise. Glasgow-based, covering padel and pickleball across the UK.
Last Updated: April 2026.
Quick Summary
- 450+ UK tennis clubs had padel courts by Q1 2026. LTA target: 1,000+ by 2028.
- Typical UK cost: £60,000–£120,000 for a covered outdoor court; £110,000–£200,000 for two shared.
- Funding stack: LTA grant (up to £100,000) + Sport England grant + member loan/share + bank finance.
- Timeline: 12–18 months committee-to-first-match.
- Build 2 courts, not 1. Single-court economics don't work; social formats need two.
- Membership typically rises 20–40% in 18 months after adding padel. Tennis participation stays stable.
Why This Guide Exists
If you're on the committee of a UK tennis club, you've probably had the padel conversation already. This article is the practical playbook for making that conversation productive rather than circular.
It's written for LTA-affiliated tennis club committees, but most of it applies to any UK sports club with land and an underutilised membership base. The companion article on the squash side — Why UK Squash Clubs Are Adding Padel Courts — covers the same territory from a squash-to-padel conversion perspective.
The Economics in One Table
| Item | Typical UK Range (Q1 2026) |
|---|---|
| 1 covered outdoor court | £60,000–£120,000 |
| 2 covered outdoor courts (shared) | £110,000–£200,000 |
| 1 indoor court (new building) | £200,000–£400,000 |
| 1 court (open air) | £40,000–£80,000 (UK use limited by weather) |
| Annual revenue per court (at 60–80% peak util.) | £40,000–£90,000 |
| Payback period (covered outdoor) | 24–36 months |
| LTA grant (max per project) | £100,000 |
| Sport England grant (typical) | £10,000–£50,000 |
These figures assume UK construction in 2026, LTA-affiliated club, standard ground conditions, no unusual planning constraints. Costs vary based on site (drainage-heavy sites add £10–£25k), lighting (LED systems £8–£20k), and glass specification (tempered vs reinforced £5–£15k difference).
The Six-Step Path From Committee Idea to First Match
Step 1: Member Feasibility (Months 0–2)
Before spending anything, answer two questions:
1. Do your members want padel? Survey the membership. Typical result at UK tennis clubs: 25–45% of members say they'd play padel weekly, 15–25% say they'd play monthly, 10–20% actively oppose. If under 40% of members are interested, the project often doesn't generate the internal demand to pay back.
2. Do you have suitable land? A covered outdoor padel court needs roughly 22m × 12m of footprint plus access and safety margins. Two courts need 24m × 22m or similar. Many UK tennis clubs have this space (often a disused bowling green, unused grass tennis court, or car park edge). Clubs that don't — often city-centre clubs with tight boundaries — face a harder build.
Consider commissioning a £2,000–£5,000 feasibility study from a padel specialist (Game4Padel, Padel4All, a surveyor with racket sport experience). This pays back by catching issues early.
Step 2: Concept Design and Committee Approval (Months 2–4)
With the feasibility case made, move to concept:
- 2-court vs 1-court decision (build 2 if land allows — the economics favour it strongly)
- Covered outdoor vs indoor decision (covered outdoor is standard UK; indoor only for high-end city clubs)
- Lighting specification (LED dimmable, 500–700 lux, critical for UK winter evening play)
- Surface type (artificial turf with silica sand infill is UK standard)
- Glass walls (tempered 12mm is standard; some clubs use hybrid mesh/glass for cost)
Present to membership at AGM or EGM. Typical threshold for approval: 60–75% member support. Below that, you're likely to face member opposition during construction and year 1 operations.
Step 3: Planning Application (Months 4–8)
For most UK sites, full planning permission applies. Key considerations:
Noise. Covered padel courts produce ~65 dB at boundary. UK councils increasingly require acoustic surveys for sites near residential boundaries. Mitigation: partial side-wall enclosure, operating hours limits, sound-absorbing turf specifications.
Lighting. LED directional lighting is standard but needs light-spill analysis for sites near housing. Typical condition: lighting off by 21:30 or 22:00.
Traffic. 2 padel courts can generate 80–120 additional vehicle movements per week. Parking capacity and local road impact both need assessment.
Visual impact. Glass walls at 3m+ height are visible. Some conservation areas or listed clubhouse sites restrict padel builds for visual reasons.
Pre-application consultation with your planning officer is the single highest-value step. A £500–£1,000 pre-app fee typically saves 2–4 months of back-and-forth during the main application.
Typical UK timeline: 6–12 weeks from application submission to decision for straightforward sites; 12–24 weeks if major consultation or design amendments are needed.
Step 4: Funding (Months 4–8 — often parallel with planning)
Standard UK funding stack for a £150,000–£200,000 2-court project:
- LTA Padel Court Funding Programme: up to £100,000. LTA affiliation required. Community access criteria (minimum public booking hours). Application process: 6–12 weeks.
- Sport England Movement Fund: £10,000–£50,000 typical. Broader eligibility than LTA. 8–16 weeks process.
- Member loan/share scheme: common UK pattern, £20,000–£60,000 raised from members at 2–4% interest, often with padel court usage rights as part of the deal.
- Club reserves: £10,000–£40,000 typical contribution.
- Bank finance: the residual, usually 10–25% of total cost, 5–10 year term.
The LTA grant is the most consequential single funding source. Apply early, apply well, and engage with the LTA's padel team — they've funded hundreds of UK projects and know exactly what strong applications look like.
Step 5: Procurement and Construction (Months 8–14)
Tender the build to specialist UK padel contractors. Typical bid evaluation:
- Price: watch for bidders 15%+ below the median — usually missing items
- UK delivery track record: how many courts have they delivered in the last 24 months in the UK?
- Warranty: 5-year structural, 2-year turf, is standard
- Timeline: 10–16 weeks build time for 2 courts is realistic
- References: talk to 2–3 recent UK clients
Major UK padel contractors in 2026 include Sport Build, Courts Worldwide, Padel Group UK, Replay Maintenance, and several regional specialists. Using a specialist is strongly recommended — general construction firms without padel experience have delivered some of the UK's worst early padel courts.
During construction, expect site disruption for 10–16 weeks. Clubs that communicate well with members through this period retain member goodwill; clubs that don't often face complaints during the disruption window.
Step 6: Launch and Year 1 Operations (Months 14–18+)
Getting the courts open is not the hard part. Running them profitably for year 1 is.
Pricing. Typical UK padel court pricing in 2026: £30–£60 per court per hour, split among 4 players = £7.50–£15 per player. Member rates typically £2–£4 below public rates. Peak (evenings and weekends) higher; off-peak lower. Don't underprice — it signals low quality.
Booking infrastructure. Use a dedicated booking platform (Padel Mates, Playtomic, MATCHi) rather than your existing tennis booking system. Padel players expect online booking with instant confirmation and partner-matching features. Most UK clubs that tried to run padel through existing tennis booking systems regretted it within 3 months.
Coaching. Hire at least one qualified padel coach for week 1. The LTA has a growing pool of qualified padel coaches. Many are ex-tennis coaches who've completed padel conversion courses. Beginner lessons fill fast at new clubs and provide both revenue and member retention.
Programming. Weekly club night, beginner clinic, Americano social, and ladder league are the four pillars of successful year-1 operation. Clubs that skip programming typically see utilisation plateau at 40–50% against a potential 70–80%.
Social integration. Tennis and padel members should interact. Combined socials, cross-sport ladders, and dual-membership benefits drive the retention that makes the economics work.
The Mistakes Year-1 Clubs Make
Building 1 court. Single-court economics are marginal. You can't run social formats, league play is constrained, utilisation ceiling is lower than two-court economics.
Skipping planning pre-app. Saves £500 at the start, costs 2–4 months in delays later.
Under-specifying lighting. UK winter evenings = 60% of annual court usage. LED 500–700 lux with dimming controls is the right spec. Cheaper lighting looks fine in summer but kills winter utilisation.
Using existing tennis booking system. Padel players churn fast on bad booking UX. Use a dedicated platform.
No padel coach at launch. Beginner conversion is the highest-retention lever in year 1. Without a coach, new members don't progress and don't come back.
Pricing like tennis. Padel at tennis court-rental prices (£8–£15 per court per hour) undersells the experience and gives away 40–60% of potential revenue.
Ignoring community access requirements. LTA grants require minimum public booking hours. Clubs that try to restrict to members only find grant conditions enforced or clawed back.
The Right Time to Start This Process
If your committee is starting this conversation in 2026, typical best-case delivery is late 2027 or early 2028. That's still ahead of the 2028 LTA target for 1,000 UK courts.
UK padel demand is still under-supplied in most cities. Even in London and Manchester where multiple operators have built aggressively, peak-time utilisation sits at 75–85% — meaning new courts continue to fill demand rather than cannibalising existing ones.
For most UK tennis clubs with the land and the member demand, the answer to "should we build padel?" in 2026 is still yes. The payback economics work, the LTA funding is available, and the membership uplift is real. The clubs that will struggle are the ones that wait until 2028–2029 when local saturation arrives.
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