Once is not customary we take you to the French Caribbean: in Martinique. An island made up of 34 municipalities for just under 370 inhabitants. It has 000 tennis clubs including 24 private structure.
However, there is no ground for padel in these tennis clubs. The Arena, private infrastructure, created 3 courts of padel, in a magnificent complex comprising of five. However, she is not affiliated with the FFT (for doing tournaments for example), and does not seem to be considering doing so at the moment.
In any case, the Arena seems to be emulating, and the padel could develop very quickly in Martinique.
Currently, there are 3 land projects on the island:
If Martinique is traditionally a sporting region, the padel took a little time to establish itself there because there is a a number of obstacles to its development on the island. Indeed, geological constraints mean that the land must comply with seismic and cyclonic standards, which considerably increases the price. Not to mention that because of the distance from the coast, the average cost of land is already 30 to 50% higher than what is found in mainland France.
The pool of players may for the moment seem relatively small with 2300 licensees in the territory in 2021. But beware, the development of padel has accelerated all over the world since confinement and we can think that in Martinique too, sportsmen of all stripes will be more and more interested in this practice. With a favorable climate and a young and athletic population, the potential for growth seems obvious.
The FFT has understood this and it should soon put the means to accelerate the development of padel in the West Indies!
Source: Martinique Tennis League