By Ed Shanaphy, B.A., M.A., CMAA
As a consultant to one of the preeminent tennis and padel clubs here in Florida, The Boulevard in Vero Beach, we saw the opportunity to take a stadium court and create 3 padel courts. It’s something we are proud of. With the courts having just completed their first winter season, we are seeing growth in play and membership.
But one question keeps lurking: Should tennis and padel stand together? Just because they are both racquet sports, should they be housed by the same membership and the same facility? Should I have advocated for a separate club, somewhere else in town? The more I think about it, the more I think I should have.
Fortunately, we did create a separate membership. But, in looking at the behavior of our tennis members, the demographic of our padel players, and the fast growth of the padel membership and play on the courts, we could have easily created a separate club. The Boulevard was featured in Vero Beach Magazine’s latest issue by a tennis player and author, Valerie Cruice, who was a tennis student of mine at Jupiter Island Club over many years. Please see her article here.
What I am finding most interesting is the lack of crossover between tennis and padel. Where we have seen some crossover of pickleball and tennis and pickleball and padel. For instance, the pickleball pro tour is comprised of 90 percent former tennis players. But, we don’t see that heavy crossover at club level between tennis and padel. At The Boulevard, padel players at the club rarely play tennis. And vice versa, the tennis members rarely play padel. Padel is drawing a distinct demographic—typically younger and more affluent—which differs markedly from our tennis base. Many of our tennis members appear disengaged with padel so far — a trend possibly influenced by age or routine loyalty.
Granted, when tennis is busy, padel is sometimes quiet, but the vice-versa is also true. Padel courts fill up at lunch time with office workers taking lessons or playing doubles. The courts are filled again very early on Saturday and Sunday mornings with advanced and beginner players, and they are full in the evenings, under the lights, after work. It’s a demographic that prefers to mix it up with Mexicana tournaments rather than have their weekly game with the same four folks.
Florida, especially north of Miami, tends to have an older, retired demographic. A demographic perhaps more resistant to change. Padel does not and it’s changing the club’s journey and path – a path that is interesting, and liberating I guess, for the club. You can track padel’s own path as it travels up the east and west coasts of the Florida peninsula.
Padel is a different sport and, I might argue, perhaps the most advanced racquet sport. Unlike pickleball, tennis players can’t just “pick it up.” Pickleball has an easy entry with a quick learning curve. Padel is more for the racquet aficionado or someone who has grown up with padel, as it’s strategically more challenging than pickleball… but, as we are noting with better players playing, padel is more strategically challenging than tennis. And, because of that, it’s challenging tennis as a sport across the globe. Deloitte, in a 2023 report, has noted that padel players already equate to a quarter of the world’s tennis players, globally. We know it’s a growing game.
One could point out that golf clubs have tennis and those are two different sports, housed by one membership Yes, they are, but due to the high costs of maintaining a golf course forcing higher membership dues, tennis will always be an amenity and play second fiddle to golf. Members join at the higher cost for golf, not tennis. Padel at a tennis club is not an amenity, it could be an equal at a racquets club – just after 18 months of offering the sport – in terms of usage and revenue. More players in a smaller area of square footage, and players with a thicker wallet.
I believe, in just four to five years, tennis might be the amenity at any racquet club, with padel leading the way in usage and revenues with court time costs much higher than tennis. Novak Djokovic has warned, just recently in the UK’s guardian, that padel may surpass tennis in participation, but even more importantly, in revenue.
Revenue, not usage, is the key to investors. And the key, therefore to growth. Djokovic sees it, and so do club managers, and most importantly, members, who are the investors at member-owned clubs. Just look at Philadelphia Cricket Club’s investment.
The club built four padel courts in 2023, less than two years ago. Since that time, 700 members have used the courts. With that heavy usage, the membership decided to move three full-time professionals to padel, with Rich Wade as Director of Squash and Padel, overseeing a Head Padel Professional and an Assistant Padel Professional.
Just as we have seen the rise of separate pickleball clubs – Boston Pickleball, for example, in the Northeast – we are going to see the growth of padel clubs. We are already seeing it here in Florida in droves – Reserve Padel and Ultra Padel in Miami and Palm Beach. These clubs can stand alone due to the higher footfall per square foot and the higher revenue per player in court time revenue and guest fees, combined with membership dues.
Padel possesses one major economic factor that will allow it to surpass tennis. Court time is substantially more costly than tennis or pickleball, and although that cost may drop a little as more padel courts come online, the old marketing adage remains: a product that maintains a higher average lifetime revenue per customer, remains a stronger product.
It’s odd to think of tennis or padel as a product, but that’s just what they are. They are the product offered by a racquet club. With the economic strength that padel possesses comes a growing sport – a sport that may surpass tennis and pickleball in usage and revenues both nationally and globally in just a few short years. But, padel is also a product that certainly can and will sustain it’s own club. We may not have racquet clubs in the future, which might help tennis maintain a role in the global racquet community as a club identifies with and fights for tennis only. But, we will certainly have padel-only clubs.
Ed Shanaphy is President of SBW Associates, Inc, the holding company behind BeyondTheBaselines.com, a leading consultancy in the private members club arena. He attended Duke University and The London School of Economics before serving as managing director of Haysbridge (UK) Ltd, one of Europe’s largest media conglomerates, for 20 years. Upon his return from London, Shanaphy served as Head Tennis Professional at Quail Valley Golf and River Club (Vero Beach, FL), Edgartown Yacht Club (Martha’s Vineyard, MA) and Jupiter Island Club (Hobe Sound, FL), before becoming Director of Tennis at Sippican Tennis Club, in Marion, MA. BeyondTheBaselines.com fully manages six clubs and has over 40 employees across five states.