UK PADEL’s COO Neil Percival offers a personal reflection on the recent LTA National Padel Operator Forum, which saw 35 padel operators connect, engage and collaborate with the sport’s governing body at the NTC…
“The LTA’s recent National Padel Operator Forum did not feel like a routine industry briefing. It felt like a line in the sand. LTA bashers and naysayers, look away now, because this was, in many ways, exactly what the sport needed at this stage.
It was an honest appraisal of where the sport has got to now, highlighting obvious positives around growth with some thoughtful direction on where that growth would be most beneficial.
Padel in Britain is pushing towards a million players, more than doubling in a year, with courts and venues expanding just as quickly. Most operators are reporting rising participation and, perhaps more strikingly, remain confident about the future. In the current climate, that level of optimism is unusual.
What the forum made clear is that the sport is entering a more complex phase of growth. There is clear desire from the LTA to invest in the elite end of the game, more than any other European nation, they say, but it raises a practical question for operators: how much of that value translates back to the venues driving participation?
Awareness of padel in Britain is already well into the millions, yet regular participation remains a fraction of that. The challenge is not visibility; it is conversion. Elite success may inspire, but only if it is seen and meaningfully connected to the everyday player experience.
There was a telling detail in the room. Scott Lloyd, CEO of the LTA, opened the session, not simply as a governing body figure but as someone who has built padel clubs himself. That matters. It suggests the LTA understands that it is not just providing governance to a sport, but helping to shape a market.
From my point of view, that reality is constant. I’m at our clubs, our events, and I’m involved in everything from ordering rackets and balls to signing off court builds. I work across our clubs with the teams on the ground, as well as on marketing and finance side, so I see how the numbers and the experience actually meet.
I hear players talking about coaching standards, coaches talking about players, whether the astro is playing quick enough, whether the lighting is right, and yes, whether the bins are overflowing with Shandy Shack and Cans of HEAD Pro S+ balls after a busy night. That is a reality of running padel clubs.
Alongside that, we run the largest slate of nationwide competitions across the country, which means we are constantly connected to players and venues well beyond our own sites. We hear what works, what doesn’t, and where players choose to spend their time. We also spend a lot of time trying to bring in sponsorship to support university and school competitions, because if the base of the sport is not strengthened, the rest does not hold. The business of padel is not built on courts alone. It is built on engaged communities, consistent experiences, and players who feel there is somewhere to go next.
The strategy being set out by the LTA operates on two fronts. At the top end, there is a clear push toward elite infrastructure, visibility and credibility. The LTA wants Britain wants to be taken seriously in the professional game, and the upcoming Premier Padel P1 London is central to that ambition with a five-year plan for the event.
But for those already invested in padel, the significance of this event is not entirely clear. Yes, it provides a rare opportunity to see the sport played at its highest level on home soil, but what is it really acting as a shop window for? The problem is that the shop window is not always open. Much of the elite game remains difficult to access, fragmented across platforms and often hidden behind paywalls.
If the top end of the sport is meant to inspire the base, it has to be visible to it. Otherwise, the connection between professional padel and the everyday player remains weaker than it should be, and at this stage in the UK it is not obvious how important that layer is yet.
Running alongside this is a more grounded reality. Nearly 40 of the country’s major operators were in the room, representing a significant share of UK courts – 40%. At the same time, around two thirds of all padel courts in Britain sit within tennis clubs. This is not a side note. It looks like the model, and fits with the LTA’s co governance of tennis and padel. Padel in Britain will not be defined by flagship venues alone. It will be defined by what happens on existing sites, week in, week out. That is where the sport will either embed itself or plateau.
The LTA’s support of this is in the latest Activator programme. The idea is simple. Lower the barrier, get more people on court, and prioritise participation and fun over perfection. Social, accessible and easy to pick up.
The LTA positions Activators largely as voluntary roles, particularly within club environments. Operators won’t be able to see it that way and in most settings, these are more likely paid roles, part of the delivery model rather than an add on. But the idea is good and it reflects how padel actually works as a sport.
Getting people onto court is only the start. The real test is what happens next.
Coaching should provide the next layer, turning participation into progression, but it still feels like the least defined part of the structure. At the moment, coaching feels like it is trying to catch up with participation, rather than shaping it. That is not surprising for what is still, in many ways, a new sport in the UK, but it does need to accelerate.
There has been progress. More coaches are being trained and the education framework is expanding. But it is not yet convincing. It does not feel like a clear, accessible pathway for either new coaches or improving players. Participation is accelerating faster than the framework beneath it. Growth without progression has a ceiling. Players will keep coming in, but they may not stay, and for operators trying to build sustainable clubs that is not theoretical. It is the difference between a busy venue and a viable one.
The participation data points to another challenge. Junior players make up a small proportion of the base, and female participation remains well below that of tennis. The former is not surprising but the latter is.
Padel in Britain has grown quickly through adult, social players. But it does highlight a risk. If the player base does not broaden, the sport risks becoming popular without becoming properly embedded. At club level, there are already signs of what works. Level-based programmes remove barriers and allow players to find their place quickly, while targeted sessions still matter because the social experience is often strongest among similar groups.
There is also a more practical issue emerging. Many operators remain unaware of the resources available to them through the LTA, from school engagement tools to official endorsement materials. That is not a failure of intent, but it is a failure of reach.
As the sport grows, that gap becomes more significant. However, the LTA is clearly not only aware of the areas where grass-roots improvements can be implicated. And it’s already doing something about it.
What stood out most at the forum was not just the strategy, but the energy coming from the LTA team itself. Steve Yeardley, Padel Manager for the LTA kept the room engaged throughout, clearly connected to the realities operators face, while Head of LTA Padel Tom Murray spoke with assurance about investment into the top end of the game and what a moment the August P1 event could be. Executives echoed these messages. It felt like padel in Britain has genuine backing behind it.
Just as importantly, there is a noticeable shift in how the LTA is engaging with operators. Under Tom and Steve’s leadership that relationship feels closer, more open and more collaborative than ever before.
Operators are the ones who make this sport real. They shape the experience, the culture and ultimately the retention of players, and right now they are leaning in. They are investing, experimenting and pushing for clarity. That alignment is a sign that padel in Britain is growing up.
Because the question is no longer whether padel will keep growing. It will. What precisely happens next, and how that growth is extended, is still a question that remains to be answered.
