Roman Taupin de Padelonomics provides a complete overview of the padel market in France in 2020 and its possible developments.

The racket market in France

First you have to explain a little bit about the snowshoeing market in France. We have in our country a real racket culture in our history which allows us to have a large pool of tennis, squash, badminton, ping-pong players ... And yet according to a very good study by the Ministry of Sports carried out in 2018, racket sports attract little (only 6% of respondents replied that they would test a racket sport well).

Why ? Well, because the athlete / client of the moment wants to “play sports when he wants, the time he wants, where he wants, with little equipment and that it is good for health and to relax”. In short, popular sports are running, yoga, swimming, bodybuilding or fitness.

Racket sports are often perceived as difficult sports, difficult to access, complicated to find partners, not necessarily recommended for health (back, knees ...): they do not really attract.

The growth of padel

What does this mean for padel? Well, it means that The growth of padel is not achieved by creating new fans of racket sports but by transforming (stealing) existing players from other racket sports. And in our case, padel is growing by transforming tennis players into padel players. This logic alone explains a large part of the growth dynamics of padel.

You have in the years 2010 to 2015 pioneers, private clubs who have settled in the 4 corners of France. Very quickly, they created a clientele which was mainly made up of converted tennis players, so they stole 'customers' from tennis clubs, which very quickly pushed tennis clubs to install padel courts to prevent their players from fleeing to other infrastructures.

This has accelerated the growth of padel because when you put a padel court (the transformation machine) next to the main raw material (tennis players), you let the wolf into the sheepfold and the process of transforming the tennis player into a padel player is launched. A survey I did among tennis clubs shows that 25% to 60% of tennis club members play padel when the latter installed one. Imagine the speed of transformation of this sport in just a few years in these clubs.

We are from just under 200 lots to 800 in 5 years. From less than 100 clubs to almost 400. The growth is there, it is constant, even if it is not a boom. But the boom is coming. I started to reference the projects to come in France and I have never seen so many projects planned for 5 years. Things are accelerating.

I plan to arrive at 1500 courts in France in 2023 with a total of 600 clubs.

Padel: an opportunity for tennis clubs

Padel is no longer a fad and more than that, padel is now becoming the miracle solution for many tennis clubs. Faced with the drop in the number of licensees, the lack of means, work for teachers, municipal tennis clubs are forced to reinvent themselves, and for that they need money from the town hall. And to obtain the favors of the elected official, padel becomes, for many club presidents, the good option to restart the activity, create social bonds, profitable and at low cost. So structurally speaking, the stars are aligning for padel to boost its growth.

Public / Private: two different markets

In the padel market, each year more tennis clubs are created than private clubs (60/40) but given that private clubs create bigger projects, the courts in France remain mostly private (55 against 45). Moreover, the private individuals develop indoor padel unlike tennis which, due to lack of resources, is developing an outdoor padel.

  

 

At the federal level, FFT is a chance, because through its aura, its network of clubs in the territory, padel gains visibility and legitimacy. On the other hand, the private sector is right to come together to be more visible and weigh more in the negotiations. The FFT is strong thanks to Roland Garros which brings it 80% of its turnover (280 million), private clubs must now position themselves and create a “Roland Garros of padel” whose fruits would come back to them.

Padel and tennis: two complementary sports?

Can't padel and tennis coexist constructively? That is to say, won't padel allow tennis players to rediscover a love for serve-volley and get back to playing tennis more intensely?

Not for me, it is a scenario that is sold to please the FFT, but in reality, padel transforms the tennis player into a padel player, “steals” customers from tennis clubs. These are the facts for the moment. I have a personal example. Less than a year ago, I suggested to a tennis club that I install padel courts in the tennis club, to manage my private padel club (with my personal investment). The first response I got was “No, if padel arrives in our club, half of our tennis players will stop playing tennis. We cannot let a private individual create padel in our tennis club, we have to create it ourselves, otherwise we are dead.” And they are in the process of creating their padel section. Tennis clubs are realizing that padel and tennis are not two friends who make each other grow, but two cannibalistic enemies.

Romain Taupin is an economist, padel teacher and has already had 10 lives in the padel world. As usual, he offers us his skills to better understand padel news… And always in figures!

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