Black padel courts: an aesthetic choice, but a real television headache

For the past few seasons, black has established itself as the "high-end" color in padel. On the circuit Premier Padel As in urban clubs that emphasize a strong identity, we are seeing more and more black courts, often surrounded by anthracite gray or matte black for the structures, stands, and surrounding areas. The idea is simple: to create a sophisticated, "premium," almost architectural image—the opposite of the green or bright blue more associated with recreational padel in the 2010s.

But this choice, which works well in photography or 3D marketing rendering, raises a real question when we move to live television broadcasting, at high speed, with tiny balls and a glass enclosure that reflects everything that moves around it.

What the regulation actually says — and what it doesn't say

One point deserves clarification, as it is often misunderstood: black is not an officially recognized color by the International Federation of Padel (FIP) for competitions. The approved colours are blue, green and earth brown — black is explicitly flagged as problematic outdoors, particularly because of the heat absorption and reflections it generates.

In practical terms, this means that the black that we see on some tracks Premier Padel In premium clubs, the choice of playing surface often comes down to the aesthetics (structures, frames, nets, resin around the court) rather than the approved color of the playing surface itself, which remains overwhelmingly blue on the professional circuit. Blue is described there as the best current compromise between playing performance, visibility, and image—precisely because it is the complementary color to the fluorescent yellow of the ball on the color wheel, which makes it literally "pop" on screen, whereas a green background tends to make the yellow-green ball blend into the background during fast rallies.

Black, however, remains very present in the environment of the court: structures, nets, floors around the court, stands, signage — hence the impression, often accurate, that “everything is black” around a pro padel filmed for television, even when the playing surface is blue.

Why black still appeals to organizers

Three reasons come up regularly:

1. Brand image. Black communicates sobriety, exclusivity, modernity — a visual language close to that of premium sports (Formula 1, sneakers, fashion). Some clubs embrace this choice as a differentiator: for example, one club might choose black precisely to create an “immersive and premium atmosphere” while another will opt for red to stand out visually — the color becomes a full-fledged element of brand identity, not just a choice for playing comfort.

2. Camera reflection management. Padel is played in a glass enclosure. Any poorly directed light source reflects off the rear and side windows, creating distracting halos on the image—a point regularly emphasized in professional lighting guides, which stress that the glass enclosure makes glare management far more critical in padel than on an open court. Dark surfaces and structures around the court reduce some of these unwanted reflections, which partly explains the appeal of black for broadcast organizers.

3. The “high-reading” contrast. From a purely optical point of view, black offers a maximum brightness difference with a fluorescent yellow ball — so technically, it's not a bad point of contrast in itself.

LONDON P1 Photo silvestreszpylma Premier Padel

The real problem: what works visually doesn't necessarily work on camera

This is where the problem lies. A television camera doesn't "see" like the human eye: it has a much more limited dynamic range. Faced with a highly contrasting scene—a near-black background, a very bright ball, windows reflecting the light from the spotlights—the sensor has to choose an exposure, and there's always a part that "jumps out": either the blacks are crushed and lose all detail (foot movement, texture of the artificial turf, cast shadows), or the ball and the bright areas are blown out.

This is precisely the conclusion that professional basketball has drawn from its own experiments with colored hardwood floors. After testing very dark or very light floors for its special tournaments, the NBA formulated a clear rule: no white, because it over-saturated the image; no black, because detail was lost. The traditional light maple floor, intentionally visually "boring," has been retained in the majority of arenas precisely because it reflects enough light to make players and the ball stand out without ever dominating the image—the number one rule of sports framing being that the background should recede, not compete with the action.

Padel, with its black structures and resin surrounding a blue court (or even a black carpet in some clubs), ticks almost all the boxes of what basketball has learned to avoid: a dark and uniform environment that absorbs detail, complicates automatic camera exposure, and reduces the sense of depth — the image appears “flat”, the players sometimes seem to stand out from the background with difficulty in wide view.

What tennis did — and why it worked

The most documented case of a color change designed for television remains that of the US Open. In 2005, the US Open switched from the traditional green to blue—a decision followed by the Australian Open in 2008, and subsequently widely copied across the world's professional tennis circuit. The chosen color, a specific Pantone blue, was not selected at random: tests were conducted to find the shade that offered the best possible contrast with the fluorescent yellow ball, both for spectators in the stands and for television cameras. The choice also served a branding purpose—a single, recognizable blue, used across all tournaments on the American circuit, creating an immediately identifiable visual identity.

The key point: tennis didn't aim for maximum contrast in absolute terms (as a black background would), but rather for the best perceptual and chromatic contrast—playing on the complementarity of colors rather than the difference in raw brightness. This is an important distinction, and it's precisely the approach padel has taken with its blue carpets, but which the black surrounding the courts partially contradicts.

Synthetic comparison

Sports	Current dominant color	Logic retained	Priority objective
Tennis (professional hard courts)	Blue (since 2005)	Chromatic complementarity with the fluorescent yellow ball	TV readability + consistent branding
Basketball (NBA, standard parquet)	Natural light wood	A neutral and reflective surface that fades into the background behind the action.	Never compete with players/ball in the image
Padel (approved playmat)	Blue overwhelmingly dominant	Complementary to the yellow of the ball	Readability, similar to tennis logic
Padel (cladding: structures, perimeter flooring, premium clubs)	Black / anthracite grey	Brand image, reduction of certain reflections	Aesthetics and brand image, not TV readability

Black padel courts: an aesthetic choice, but a real television headache

Why this isn't so obvious to viewers

Three specific difficulties regularly arise for viewers, both on air and in the stands:

Loss of depth : a uniformly dark setting (structures, floor, nets) around a playing area already framed by glass makes it more difficult to perceive relief and distances, especially in wide shots or in slow motion on a cushioned shot.
Contrast fatigue for the automatic camera : camera scans moving from a very dark area (structure) to a very bright area (track under floodlights, reflective glass) force real-time exposure adjustments, with the risk of transiently losing the ball or the racket movement — a well-identified phenomenon in sports filmmaking.
Outdoor heat : on black carpets approved for recreational use (outside of the pro circuit), the higher thermal absorption of black is a point regularly noted, with discomfort during play in high heat — the objective reason why the FIP has never approved this color for outdoor use.

Solutions already proven elsewhere

Padel doesn't need to reinvent everything — several paths already exist, largely inspired by what other sports have already proven successful:

Clearly separate the playmat from the cover. Keeping a blue homologated carpet (already the standard on the circuit) while reserving black for purely decorative and branding elements (logos, exterior frames, signage) located outside the field of view of close-up cameras — rather than letting black “nibble away” at the immediate peripheral area, which remains in the frame during wide shots.
Work on the lighting according to the camera "show court", not just the game. Professional standards already distinguish a specific lighting level for televised courts (around 1000 lux or more), significantly higher than the level required for regular competition — lighting designed for the image, not just for the player's vision, helps to limit the "black hole" effect of dark areas.
Draw inspiration from the compromise of “neutral surface, carefully designed environment” basketball: the background of the game remains simple and legible, while the personalization (brand colors, ambient lighting, LED animations) focuses on areas outside the strict playing area — stands, screens, player entrances — without ever encroaching on the area that must remain legible to follow the ball.
Test before generalizing. The NBA made this decision precisely after concrete feedback on colored courts tested in real broadcast conditions, not on simple aesthetic intuition — an approach that professional padel could reproduce on a smaller scale before generalizing a dark design on its center courts.

In Summary

Black isn't a bad choice by accident—it addresses a genuine need for branding and a real problem with managing reflections on glass. But when transposed as is to a live sporting event, with a small, fast ball and a glass enclosure, it creates tension with the demands of television production: what appears elegant in a still photograph can become difficult to expose and track in motion. Tennis (complementary blue) and basketball (neutral light wood) have each, in their own way, opted for legibility over pure aesthetics. Padel, a sport still relatively new to global television broadcasting, would likely benefit from more clearly separating the approved playing surface (where blue is already the standard) from the branding—rather than allowing black to encroach on the area that must remain legible on screen.

Main sources

International Federation of Padel (FIP) — approved colors: Padelgestures, Blue, Green, or Earth-toned Padel Short?
Dear Sports Fan, TennisLovers, Dragon Courts — history of the switch to blue courts at the US Open (2005) and the Australian Open (2008)
NBA Hoops Online, The 6 Best NBA Courts: Floors That Look Good, Read Clean, and Tell a Story (Quote from the Washington Post's analysis of the NBA Cup courts)
IndieWire / Yahoo Sports, The NBA Cup's Colorful Courts Are Horrible TV and Fail Filmmaking 101
PickleTile / REITA Light — padel lighting standards (lux classes, glare management on glass)
Wikipedia FR, Premier Padel — attendance and participation figures in France

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovered padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since then, padel has been part of his life. You often see him touring France to cover major French padel events.