It won’t be long before the UK has 2000 padel courts, but operators’ haste to meet ravenous public demand must not come at the expense of quality and safety.
That’s the message from Richard Shaw, CEO of the Sports and Play Construction Association (SAPCA), the industry body that represents companies that design, build and maintain sports and play facilities.
September’s tragic news that two men had died and another was seriously injured while unloading padel court glass panels from a truck was the clearest example yet that guidelines and standards must be adhered to when it comes to health and safety in padel court construction.
Quality, too, is important across the sport. Padel’s unprecedented explosion has seen numerous new operators enter the industry, keen to ride the wave. Some are more experienced, scrupulous and competent than others.
To provide guidance to padel operators and venues, SAPCA published a Code of Practice for the Construction of Padel Courts in consultation with the LTA in 2021, which was updated this September and will be revised on an ongoing basis.
It’s hoped that, once widely adopted by the industry, it will lead to a rise in standards and an end to some of the horror projects that SAPCA have been called in to rescue — often, sadly, too late.
“They’d basically built a big fish tank…”
Speaking to The Padel Paper at last week’s UK Padel Convention, SAPCA CEO Shaw said: “Due to the sheer numbers of courts being built, there’s inevitably a number that are not being done very well. When you factor in demand far outstripping supply, it only leads further in that direction.
“The horrible part of my job is sometimes telling the investor that what’s been built has been a complete waste of money. We had one recently at a tennis club where constructors had basically built a big fish tank.
“They used impervious concrete and made it 20×10, so the legs were hanging off the ringbeam and it was filling with water. It was probably £50,000 worth of work and the only advice we could give was to dig it up and start again. It’s a tough conversation.
“Other sports we cover have mature supply chains and contractors. They have issues of course, but not to the same level we have in padel.
“We need to get closer to the market and the operators to inform and educate about the dangers. We’ve all got a role to play in making the market more mature so we don’t accept some of the bad examples we’re seeing.”
It’s not just construction where problems are occurring. Maintenance is often overlooked. Shaw has seen courts with wobbling glass and gaps between panes inviting nasty finger degloving injuries.
As The Padel Paper highlighted recently, accessibility is a big issue in some new padel facilities, particularly with regards to wheelchair users.
“I honestly can’t believe some of the the things padel operators are getting away with around accessibility,” said Shaw. “We saw one that had portaloos, so wheelchair users can’t use the toilet. Such is the demand for padel, everybody seems to be letting standards slip, including local authorities.”
Shaw admits that SAPCA were “caught cold” by the growth of padel and have had to work hard to adapt to the “unprecedented” arrival of a new, construction-heavy sport on the scene.
Part of the organisation’s role is to set standards through its Code of Practice for the Construction of Padel Courts and to use a carrot, rather than a stick, in proactively urging the industry to adopt them.
“The arrival of padel has grown us as an organisation but has brought real challenges in trying to get a handle on the market,” admitted Shaw. “It’s got better, but we’re still seeing some bad stuff being built.
“We’re hopeful that as the number of courts grows, consumers are being more selective and that’s driving them to the better courts, so we’ll get rid of the bottom of the market as people learn not to accept it. That will see a shift away from those poorer standards and will make everyone safer and the industry stronger.”
As a disabled Padel player, I cannot understand how an operator can get away with not having an accessible toilet.
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