Padel Project Update

Dear [[firstname]]

Firstly, thank you to all of you who came along to our Padel meeting on 17th October.

Overall, the majority in the room expressed a very positive approach for the Project to go ahead subject of course to satisfactory financial arrangements being made.

As a short summary of the meeting, I first thanked those generous pledgers that have given us the confidence to proceed to this point. At this time there has not been any outlay from the club on this project.

The meeting was shown Padel and Pickleball bats and balls with a short description of court layouts. It is intended that we introduce Pickleball mix-ins on Sunday afternoons in future. This is in the hands of the Tennis Committee.

We then moved on to Padel.

I introduced the team of members that I had recruited to support the delivery of the project.

Tony Pinson (TP), Guy Birkett (GB), Marc Hughes and Graham Loader (GL).

We have currently reduced our list of potential suppliers to two. Future site visits are being arranged.

We outlined the layout which will leave an area for a single grass court

The decision to leave a grass court will reduce the overall project costs. There will be sufficient room behind the Padel courts to provide access to other areas of courts for maintenance purposes.

We have now applied to the LTA for a Quick Access Loan. At this time, it is likely to be at least 3 months before a decision is made. Subsequently the LTA have come back to us asking for more detail.

The LTA Padel Strategy

Since 2021 The LTA has invested £6m to grow the Padel Infrastructure in the UK
The number of courts has grown from 50 in 2019 to 350 at the end of 2023
There are now 135 registered venues and 129,000 players.
They now plan to increase awareness from 20% to 40% of the population, and boost participation.
They plan to increase the number of annual padel players from 129,000 to 400,000.
And increase the number of padel courts from 350 to 1,000

Currently there are no Padel courts west of the M5/M6 in the West Midlands

The Padel Opportunity at WLTSC

To improve the overall racquets offer (Tennis (5 surfaces), Squash & Racketball, Padel, Pickleball and touchtennis)
To improve member retention
To generate revenue for reinvestment in the Club
To offer non-member access to the courts at a premium price, and at managed times
To maintain our pre-eminent position as the leading racquets club in the West Midlands
To attract a new generation of members
To provide additional partnership and sponsorship opportunities (Porsche Wolverhampton and more)
To increase our diversity and our offer to our community

We then opened the meeting for questions.

Chris Quick asked why we were keeping a single grass court. Tony Pinson (TP) said this was to reduce overall costs, whilst still keeping our options open for the future.
John Hollingsworth addressed the meeting referring to the original financial model and suggesting that it will require a disproportionate number of members to book courts for the project to be viable. SC reiterated that the financial model had changed and we are generating a new model ready for presentation to members in future.
Amun Samra requested information on the demographics of members playing at East Glos and what would be our break-even utilisation. GL and SC agreed to provide these numbers in future.
Geoff Barnett inquired about security. SC replied that the courts will be enclosed with secure fencing with key fob or passcode access.
Jenny Cooper enquired about pressure on car parking facilities. TP replied that in 2003 there were 2,000 members. There was not a problem then and of course play is spread out throughout the day.
Steve Turner read from his mobile phone supporting the retention of all 3 grass courts. GB pointed out that there were no alternative locations at the club for padel courts.
Kate Weaver asked if subscriptions would rise to pay for the Padel project. SC stated that subscription levels will definitely not be increased to accommodate Padel.
Mollie Fothergill, Simon Booth and Robin Chipperfield all voiced their support for the project.
Ben Robinson of Porsche said it is vital for any business to evolve and he felt that the introduction of Padel would attract a younger generation of members.

To conclude the meeting SC stated that the team would gather further supportive data from East Glos, Barnt Green and Solihull Arden who all have padel Courts. The team will then revise the financial model ready for presentation to members once the LTA offer an interest free loan.

The meeting ended at 8.45pm

27/10/2024

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