BY ALAN THATCHER
Last year saw records broken around the world for attendance figures at major padel events, plus new high levels for televised tournaments.
The sport is growing steadily at grassroots level in the UK, but in many other parts of the world the game has established all the trappings of a fully professional, competitive structure.
Huge crowds attend major tournaments which attract massive TV viewing figures which in turn has acted like a magnet for top brands coming in as sponsors.
The portable padel court is very similar to its squash counterpart, bringing the sport to indoor arenas and iconic city centre locations.
The World Padel Tour’s streaming service, called WorldPadelTourTV, allows fans to watch more live matches than ever before, and news and features content builds the game’s star players into genuine celebrities.
The WPT website tells us: “The record for most-viewed event was broken four times in 2021; First at the Cascais Master, then at the Menorca Open, again at the CDMX Open and finally at the Estrella Damm Master Final 2021.
“The latter has truly smashed the record for the most-viewed event. While the CDMX Open was the first tournament to garner over 300,000 viewers, the Master Final reached almost 500,000 views in the live coverage. This is more than double the number of views compared to the 2020 Master Final, and 70% more than the viewing record pre-2021.
“The biggest live audience record was broken earlier in the season. The Sardegna Open final, where Franco Stupaczuk and Alejandro Ruiz beat Paquito Navarro and Martín Di Nenno in straight sets, reached a peak of 5,579 live viewers on YouTube, a record that still stands.”
Fans also turned up in droves to watch live events in the flesh.
The website added: “While the outright attendance record, set at the 2019 Master Final in Barcelona with 9,585 fans, was not broken, the 2021 Estrella Damm Master Final came very close.
“The Madrid Arena was capped at 9,500 because of Covid restrictions, with a sell-out crowd on Saturday. The Friday session broke the record for highest-attended quarter-finals ever with almost 8,000 fans.
“Earlier in the year, the Malmo Padel Open broke another record. With over 6,800 people at the Malmö Arena, it was not only the third-highest attendance ever at the time, but also became the biggest live audience of all time outside of Spain.
“Only Madrid and Barcelona have housed bigger crowds, which is another indicator of how much the competition is growing worldwide.”
The World Padel Tour is constantly building new partnerships with broadcasters and the men’s final of the Estrella Damm Master Final 2021 was broadcast in a total of 84 countries, making it the most televised WPT match in history.
Full story on the World Padel Tour website
This year, a rival tour has emerged with the launch of Premier Padel, following the Ooredoo Qatar Major in Doha held in March. Funding is in place from the Qatari state-backed Qatar Sports Investments.
Premier Padel is organised by the International Padel Federation (FIP) and has the backing of the French Tennis Federation (FFT) and the Italy Tennis Federation (FIT).
Spectacular padel events are now set to take place at top tennis venues in Rome and Paris.
Action takes place at the historic Foro Italico from May 21-29 with Roland Garros hosting an event from July 11-17. Italy is believed to have more than 300,000 padel players with France not far behind with a report quoting figures of 280,000 participants.
Full report on Inside The Games website
Images from @WorldPadelTour on Twitter
