How to Choose a Padel Court: Features to look for

What is Padel court? Explanation in brief

A Padel court is bought and delivered in three different elements.

1. Steel frame and fences with a sufficient thickness of the profile, size 10m x 20m
2. Glasses with sufficient quality and thickness of 10-12mm
3. Sports turf / artificial grass needs to be very good for a competitive playing experience. Very often people do not buy high-quality turf from the beginning, and they realize it very soon after installation and then they need to renew it. The size is 200m2.

Additionally, you need to have lighting in the court so no matter what is the time of the day you have good lighting conditions at your Padel courts. With the amount of lighting, you can create a competitive edge compared to other Padel destinations.

Padel court manufacturers or brokers normally sell everything all in one. You can also decide together with the seller the best way for transportation and installation of the courts.

Let’s start this reading with a summary and after we’ll have more detailed information on each point in our checklist.

Top 8 checklist to look for when you are planning to build a Padel destination

1. Location for your Padel courts – you want to have easy access to your customers
2. Foundation and soil for the location – you want to have a solid ground
3. Positioning of the Padel courts – you want to create an attractive entrance
4. Quality of the Padel Court – you want to make a sustainable investment with a warranty
5. Quality of the Artificial Grass – you want to have high-performing turf to make your customers prefer your Padel club
6. Powerful lighting – lighting is bright and effective at shedding light on the court
7. Height of the free space – you want to have a higher ceiling compared to competitors
8. Scalability in the number of courts – you need to be able to scale your revenues

Location, Location, and Location – nothing new and still very important

A good location for a Padel destination is an important factor when you want to achieve more than just a hobby from Padel. It is in your main interest to find a known location with organic visibility. You want to create easy access to your customers by private cars to your Padel club. In a good location, you have a lot of parking lots. How large a parking area you should have? Normally you can calculate the needed parking capacity starting from the number of maximum numbers of Padel players multiplied by 0,8. This can be different based on the market, but normally Padel people prefer their private vehicles. The maximum amount of Padel players you can calculate easily by the number of courts multiplied by eight (8). Why multiplied by eight? As Padel is played in doubles there are four persons playing at the same time and when the reservation cycle is changing you have twice as many people at your Padel club.

Foundation – a solid groundwork is a must indeed

This is a very basic and important criterion for the construction work that you need to build the groundwork and pour the concrete ground horizontally and measured with a spirit level tool. The thickness of the concrete needs to be a minimum of 18-20 centimeters to make it fulfill the minimum measures for the installation of the Padel court firmly.

When you are building Padel courts outdoor, remember to use experienced professionals in building the concrete foundation so that you avoid headaches afterward. There are multiple phases, starting from site work which is crucial to avoid unnecessary risks of heaving because of winter or other movements in the soil. Following with a list of other phases.

Positioning – attractive entrance and positioning of the courts

How to create an attractive first impression to new customers and a commercially smooth customer journey at your Padel Club? You aim to create a smooth customer journey while combining with attractive upselling opportunities that can create 10-20% additional income. When you do the design carefully you can increase the average purchase per customer and improve profitability. Robust income sources you can build from equipment sales like balls and rackets and how to take care of your customers’ pre- and after-game hydration and energy levels.

In our experience, the best entrance is always located in the middle of one of the sides of the center. In this way, you create a powerful first impression when people walk into your sports club. Your customers can feel the energy surrounding them immediately while they can see people in movement from 180 to 360 degrees.

Quality of the Steel frame of the Padel Court – sustainable investment with a warranty

The quality of the steel profiles is something new buyers underestimate very often. It is important you purchase a Padel court that is for a long-time and is sustained in changing temperatures and humidity. In the long run, it does not make a big difference whether you buy a Padel court with 25.000€ or 30.000€, more important is to focus on building a growing and loyal clientele.

We have seen in multiple projects both indoor and outdoor that the buyer is choosing the cheapest option and will later regret their earlier cost-oriented decision. Since you have already a proper level of utilization you do not want to spend time on changing the court or spending time on fixing it. Might sound too far away now but trust us – do not select only based on price.

Quality of the artificial grass – player experience and easy maintenance

Sports turf or artificial grass, whatever we want to call it, is very important to select well from the beginning. It is important that your club is having the best comfort and high-durability sports grass. High comfort is helping your customer to experience fewer injuries and avoid reputational risks. Durability is helping you in easier maintenance and a longer lifetime for the turf, you have chosen. Sand is an important element to finalize the performance of the turf. You mainly fine-tune the performance of your court by adjusting the amount of the sand and in higher quality turfs you don’t need to spend that much sand compared to cheaper sports grasses. In our recommendation monofilament turf with a high volume of stitches is the only turf we can say you should use. The best-performing sports grasses have 27 stitches per every 10cm. All the other artificial grass options are a waste of money and your time in the end.

The official color of the sports grass is blue, which is the most popular and seen option in the Padel courts worldwide. Very often you can also see especially on outdoor courts Padel clubs using green turf. Other colors are also available like red grass, but you see them more seldom.

The height of the free space above the Padel court – must be a minimum of 8 meters

Especially indoor locations it is crucial to have sufficient height and free-ceiling space above the Padel courts. This is one of the key points new market entrants underestimate or market pioneers who are the first movers in the new Padel market.

We can see multiple Padel Clubs already, especially in Sweden and Finland have lost their customers to other Padel operators with higher free ceilings and some of them have been forced to close their businesses or they have even gone bankrupt.

A free ceiling of a minimum of 8-10 meters is absolutely the critical factor for a sustainable Padel Club business. Some investors do not even enter premises with less than 10 meters of height as they understand the importance of the free space for the shots of advanced players.

Scalability in the number of Padel Courts

Last but not least is the scalability of your Padel club. This is the most important factor unless you want to have a Padel club as a hobby. It has been seen in the matured markets where increased competition has changed the market, there is a limited chance to do business with less than eight (8) courts in the long run. This is especially the case if the location is indoors and the free ceiling is less than 8 meters.

So, it is easy to remember, that you have to have eight meters of free space above the courts, and you need to be able to grow up to eight Padel courts. What we mean by this is that you do not need to have eight courts from the beginning and not even in the same location, but in the long term, you need to be able to provide capacity to the customers so you can find scalability from your costs.

Conclusions of How to Choose the Right Padel Court for Your Needs

There are multiple common mistakes you can do when you establish a Padel club or purchase a Padel court for your existing sports club. The most common mistake is that a low price is a primary criterion for decision-making. Whilst the focus should be on building an attractive destination for new Padel people and making a growing and profitable business.

Our recommendation is not to choose the cheapest option you have found. The main risk in the cheapest Padel courts is that when you normally have later some problems, and you are alone. The problem can be anything from lighting to corrosion in the steel profiles. In higher-quality Padel courts you have a long-term warranty, and you can sleep peacefully at night.

You might have some further considerations and doubts about what type of Padel court you should choose. Please let us know. You are more than welcome to contact us and ask furthermore questions. You are welcome to share more information about your project and we can advise you even better related to your needs and project scope. Have a look at more information if you are a B2B client. We are interested to help your project to become a great success.

Hope you enjoyed reading this article and hope you are still interested to follow your passion in Padel. Thank you for reading our article to advise your purchase process in Padel courts.

Let us recommend you also read our article on Padel court basics.

Padel is from Acapulco since 1969. PADEL1969 is an independent research and growth company in Padel. We are the only company that is only dedicated to Padel products, and services and operates worldwide. Our products are high-quality equipment and premium courts. Our services are market research and projects of new Padel clubs to investors. Our clients can be proud of being part of the Padel community. At PADEL1969 we believe in passion, joy, and integrity. We are proud to create one of the best Padel products in the world. We respect the DNA and history of Padel – from Acapulco since 1969.