BY ALAN THATCHER
The world record for a padel attendance is expected to be smashed in August when a major new Premier Padel tournament takes place in Madrid.
The International Padel Federation (FIP) has announced that the Madrid Premier Padel P1 will take place from August 1-6, becoming the first P1 level event to be unveiled in Europe.
Madrid’s WiZink Center holds 15,000 spectators and, with Spain the biggest padel nation with 14,000 courts and six million players, a new world record for a padel audience is confidently expected.
The tournament is another mega event planned by Premier Padel, following an earlier announcement of the Argentina Premier Padel P1 which was unveiled earlier this year.
Premier Padel calls itself the official global padel tour, governed by International Padel Federation (FIP) and backed by the Professional Padel Association (PPA) and Qatar Sports Investments (QSI).
It has been set up in direct opposition to the World Padel Tour and after a launch event in Qatar attracted huge crowds to its next showpiece tournament in Italy.
The Italy Major Premier Padel final in Rome provided a fantastic promotional vehicle for the sport. The Foro Italico was packed with 7,000 enthusiastic fans as the all-Spanish team of Juan Lebrón Chincoa and Alejandro Galán beat Spain’s Paquito Navarro and Argentina’s Martin Di Nenno 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.
Crucially for padel’s continuing development, TV coverage was broadcast in 167 territories. Here’s how we reported on the tournament.
In announcing the Madrid event, a statement on the Premier Padel website revealed: “We are delighted to announce the first ‘P1’ tournament to be staged in Europe in Spain, the spiritual home of padel.
“The Madrid Premier Padel P1 will take place from August 1-6 at the WiZink Center as the rapidly growing tour comes to the biggest padel market in the world. The annual tournament will be hosted in Madrid under a multi-year deal.
“The Qualifiers will take place on July 30-31, with the main draw starting at their conclusion. The Madrid Premier Padel P1 becomes the second P1, category two tournament to be announced after the Argentina Premier Padel P1 was unveiled earlier this year.
“Premier Padel is the only tour to offer official ranking points to players and P1 tournaments will earn the winners 1000 points, together with record prize money, in keeping with all P1 events.”
Watch the Madrid Premier Padel P1 announcement video.
The report continued: “Not too many countries can match the passion for padel that Spain has. The country has almost six million padel participants, more than 14,000 padel courts and over 1,000 officially registered padel clubs situated across the length and breadth of Spain.
“The Madrid Premier Padel P1 is sure to be one of the biggest sporting events on the Spanish calendar.
Premier Padel will host at least 10 new tournaments in 2022 – including four category one “Major” events. The first major – the Ooredoo Qatar Premier Padel Major – took place in Doha in March. The second, the Italy Premier Padel Major at the Foro Italico concluded a fortnight ago.
“The other category one tournaments are the Paris Premier Padel Major at Stade Roland-Garros taking place from July 11-17, and the Mexico Premier Padel Major at the Club Sonoma en Monterrey, México from November 28 to December 4.
“The Argentina Premier Padel P1 takes place from August 8-14. More tournaments will be announced very, very soon.”
Luigi Carraro, President of the International Padel Federation, said: “We are very proud to bring Premier Padel to Spain, the spiritual home of padel. The love and passion the country has for padel is for all to see.
“We know Spanish padel fans will support the P1 tournament in their numbers. Only a fortnight ago we attracted record crowds at the Foro Italico in Rome, and I’m sure we will also create a special atmosphere at the WiZink Center in August.”
The Board of Directors of the Professional Padel Association (PPA) said: “This deal starts an amazing new chapter for padel in our sport’s most popular country.
“The PPA is delighted at the future that is being built for the sport under the Premier Padel tour, with the players at the forefront of everything that is done. The PPA massively looks forward to the first P1 event in Europe and we are sure the WiZink Center in Madrid will be a worthy venue for the occasion. This event will be spectacular for the players, fans and all padel lovers.”
The ‘Madrid Premier Padel P1’ will be broadcast around the world with a huge number of channels taking an instant liking to the world’s fastest-growing sport.
These broadcasters include the likes of ESPN (South America, Central America, Mexico and Caribbean), Sky Sports (Italy, UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland), beIN SPORTS (MENA, South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, France, Turkey), Viaplay (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the Netherlands), SuperSport (Sub-Saharan Africa), Charlton TV (Israel), Arena (Czech & Slovak), Cosmote (Greece) and many more to be announced in due course.
Further details on the Madrid tournament will be announced soon.
Premier Padel website
WORLD RECORD CROWDS FOR PADEL:
From the World Padel Tour website:
The outright attendance record was set at the 2019 Master Final in Barcelona with 9,585 fans. 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 quarter-finals on Friday, however, broke the record for highest-attended quarter-finals ever with almost 8,000 people in attendance.
Earlier in the year, the Malmö Padel Open 2021 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.
