From the niche to a mass phenomenon
If a few years ago people described it as a niche sport – or a “vip” one – now padel practitioners are hundreds of thousands.
There here are currently more than 400,000 padel players in Italy: 620% more than in 2018,
when it was still considered a side sport. A surge in players also linked to the boom in gaming facilities,
up 60% compared to 2018, with more than 2000 courts used in early 2021.
On the other hand, padel has become the sport that has grown more than other athletic activities during 2020 in Italy, while in Spain, in 2020, it’s the second national sport for practitioners’ number.
It earns not only the sport itself, but also the manufacturer brands.
Padel brands are already active companies producer in tennis, such as Head, Wilson, Babolat or adidas, and even for them, the padel has started to record an increase in sales, so much so that for some, it has balanced the revenue of tennis. With numbers like this it is logical to think that this sport, after the pandemic, can only grow further, among other things at the expense of other activities such as tennis or soccer, which risk losing popularity (and sales) due to the sudden national popular success of the padel (here its history).
So the question is: why did everyone suddenly start playing padel?
Padel is stimulating, it is practical, and it is full of fun. On the one hand, in fact, there is the competition of points and the challenge that enhances its pleasant appearance, on the other there is sociality: you necessarily play in pairs and as in other team sports you also improve by exploiting the game with your partner. As the former AC Milan player specifies, the padel is also succeeding because all age groups participate in it (most would be over 40) and allows to label this activity with very inclusive age limits. This also explains why it has
also begun to be followed by sports entrepreneurs, who have guessed how, economically, it can be more fruitful than other activities.
For example, one comparison that has emerged lately is that of futsal. In the space of a single futsal field,
three padel courts can be built, which economically, in one hour of play, translates into three times the revenue.
A game of padel costs (on average) ten euros per person for an hour of play, and for a plant manager,
three padel courts carry a total of 120€; a five-a-side football field, on the other hand, with an expense (on average) of six euros per person, allows revenue equal to half. With a hypothetically more fruitful economic flow, many sports entrepreneurs are investing in padel fields, whose average growth in Italy is four new units per day.
Paradoxically, the success of the padel has increased (in part) also thanks to the pandemic, which has led many curious people to take an interest in it and to buy its products (precisely because in Italy, in the orange zone and in the yellow zone, it is the only sport activity practicable in company, while in the red zone it is possible only for Fit members).
