Brighton & Hove City Council has selected Game4Padel to operate a combined tennis and padel facility at its new Hove Beach Park.
The park is being created through the Kingsway to the Sea project, which aims to regenerate the underused facilities and green spaces on the seafront in West Hove by creating a new park stretching from Hove Lagoon to the King Alfred Leisure Centre.
Predominantly funded by the government’s Levelling Up Fund, the park is expected to be fully completed towards the end of this year with the tennis and padel facilities opening earlier in the summer.
Councillor Julie Cattell, Lead Member for Major Projects, said: “Game4Padel has extensive experience of operating padel facilities alongside tennis. Many of its venues also offer tennis or operate at multi-sport destinations, and many of their coaches straddle both tennis and padel.
“The company has a number of tennis stars as investors and ambassadors, including Andy and Jamie Murray, Annabel Croft and Andrew Castle.
“We are looking forward to seeing tennis and padel thrive as part of a strong sports offering in the new park alongside bowls, croquet, the new skatepark, pump track and roller area.”
Game4Padel will be responsible for the six tennis and four padel courts at the site, facilitating bookings, running coaching for all ages and abilities, and ensuring the facilities are well used by building a thriving, racket sport community in the area.
Game4Padel have been operating an uncovered pop-up padel court at Withdean Sports Complex since October 2022 and have received planning permission from the council to install a permanent three-court covered floodlit facility there.
The temporary court at Withdean has been extremely popular with excellent court occupancy midweek and at weekends, and there is significant demand in the city for more padel facilities. The new courts at Withdean are planned to open this summer.
Game4Padel CEO Michael Gradon added: “We are delighted to have been selected following a competitive pitch for this exciting regeneration project. We pride ourselves on our ability to build vibrant communities where we operate our venues, and we are sure that with the current demand for padel and tennis in Brighton and Hove, this site will soon become a thriving location for anyone wanting to play these racket sports.
“Our focus is on making sure that everybody feels welcome to play at Hove Beach Park. We have built our padel business on a ‘Pay & Play’ approach to ensure that padel is accessible to all, and we will be adopting a similar approach across padel and tennis here in Brighton and Hove.
“With the new facilities at Withdean coming soon as well, we hope that Brighton and Hove can look forward to becoming a real hub for padel, as well as tennis. One where we can host major events, tournaments, social events and fixtures across both sites, as well as developing the sports at the grassroots level.”
