Padel has been booming around the world in recent years, with 10,000 courts in 2016 and 70,000 expected by 2026, according to the “Global Padel Report 2024” study. France is not immune to the phenomenon and padel complexes are becoming more and more numerous: 673 were built in 2023 in France, bringing the total to 2,179 in January 2024.
A padel track costs almost the same price as a tennis court…
This is much less than the number of tennis courts, estimated at 32,560 by the French Federation. But the dynamic is very clearly in favor of padel, enough to scare tennis player Novak Djokovic, who mentions the « danger du padel ou du pickleball » for his sports car it’s cheaper
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Is this really the case as the Serbian, record holder for the number of Grand Slam titles, suggests? Contacted, SolsTech, a company based in Loir-et-Cher and specialized in the construction of sports fields, mentions a cost between €65,000 and €70,000 all inclusive (ground and structure) for a padel track. The price of a new tennis court? Substantially identical: between €60,000 and €70,000.
…but occupies three times less surface area
The interview is a little different: “Often on a padel track, we glue grass on top. And who says grass, says adding sand every 2-3 years depending on the use of the land. So it has an additional cost”explains Caroline Dubré of SolsTech. “Otherwise, there is no big difference apart from the fact that a tennis court is 650 m² and a padel is only 200”she adds.
Read also: Why is padel becoming a real alternative to tennis?
And this is where the question of profitability comes into play. For a tennis court, a private company can position three padel courts. Vincent Sapène, boss of Garden Rennes, very quickly chose to diversify his offer and include padel. “Fortunately we took the step to diversify with padel, badminton and squash to be able to keep the business going. The club would not have disappeared, but without this diversification and the padel (8 indoor tracks, 6 outdoor tracks)we could not have made all the investments we are currently making”he explains.
“After a while, the bubble of padel will burst”
There, an hour and a half is billed at €9 per player (or €36 in total) compared to €10 per hour in tennis (€20 in total). The business is therefore much more profitable and less expensive for practitioners. However, Vincent Sapène nuance: “It’s a question of supply and demand. Currently, demand is so strong that all players in the Rennes area have to wait several weeks or months to reserve the most requested slots. After a while, the bubble will burst because there are so many projects being set up, but for the moment, there is good activity. In 2015 in Rennes, padel was a very little-known sport, there was no one in the clubs and then it exploded. »
“On paper, it’s profitable, but it also depends on the resources you put into it”adds former professional footballer Gaël Danic, who opened a complex near Rennes, in Bruz. “In two years, the padel court pays for itself. Without forgetting the peripheral activities like the bar area which also help”announces Vincent Sapène. A foolproof profitability that can threaten tennis?
“The demand for track construction does not exceed the renovations of tennis courts here, retorts Caroline Dupré, from SolsTech. Tennis is still very anchored, people have not all changed their minds. » For the company, the padel has only “gained more momentum over the past three, four years” but tennis “remains relevant”.
