The Padel Hub is set to open its first venue in Slough – and owners have chosen a luxury ‘living room’ vibe.
The five-court, all-indoor club in the affluent Berkshire town has been designed deliberately as a cosier alternative to the large, warehouse-based clubs which are opening at a rapid rate across the UK.
The 26,000 sq ft open-plan venue will feature a wellness suite, courtside gym, café, bar and work stations. The picture above, of a club in Sweden, is very much the look and feel The Padel Hub hope to emulate. It is set to open in July, with further clubs to follow in Bournemouth and Basingstoke.
The Padel Hub will offer memberships and pay-and-play options, with membership packages starting at £95 per month. Fifty founder membership packages are currently available on a first come, first serve basis. There will be free on-site parking and the club is located within easy reach of central London.
Members will also use a newly re-launched an app, Padel Mates, for court bookings. That element is part of “the club vibe” that Charles and his investors are aiming for.
“I’ve played tennis for a long time and really, most people only ever play with a maximum of 12 people in their entire life,” he states.
“The two main booking apps that most clubs use are all very well, but do I really want to play Dave who’s here on business from Scotland, just because an app says we might be roughly the same level? Not really. I’d rather hang out with my friends and colleagues.”
Padel Mates is re-launching on 1 June with The Padel Hub as its first big client.
Mauri Andrini (pictured below), from the Hello Padel Academy, will be helping out with coaching at The Padel Hub, as will Charles himself who has previously coached and played padel at Fairmont Windsor Park and Weybridge.
There will be all the usual mix-in, women’s, social and coaching sessions, with dedicated court time offered to local juniors for free. The club will be actively engaging some of the many local blue-chip companies to run corporate coaching sessions and competitions.
The venue build and an initial outlay of six months’ rent up front has totalled well over £1m. Deep pockets are needed for this kind of investment and, luckily, The Padel Hub seems to have them, with Charles joined by a handful of investors from the world of finance.
Charles says: “Padel in the UK is a bit like the Wild West at the moment, with a lot of people talking about big projects, but only a few people actually doing anything. We just wanted to get on with it, because we know how good the game is and we wanted to give people a chance to play.
“In two years of coaching padel, I haven’t had one person on court who hasn’t become addicted to it. Even tennis players who’ve played it have stopped playing tennis and now just play padel.”
Building what he calls a “proper” indoor padel club (i.e. not in a dome or under a canopy) was important, because Charles is sceptical about the viability of padel as an outdoor pursuit in the British climate.
“Padel was developed in hot climates in Mexico, Argentina and Spain and I’m not sure it translates perfectly to the UK with our weather.
“That’s why we’re going down the indoor route – and we won’t be building anything bigger than five courts. We’ll have sofas, carpets and nice lighting. It’ll be like your lounge at home.”
The Padel Hub is set to opens its doors the lucky denizens of Slough in July.
