Lee Valley padel plans on hold
Lee Valley padel plans halted
A controversial £500,000 scheme to replace tennis with padel at a London 2012 Olympic legacy venue has been placed on hold, The Bandeja can reveal.
The project would have seen seven double and two single padel courts replace four indoor tennis courts at Lee Valley Hockey & Tennis Centre, part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, East London – also home to the London Stadium, London Aquatics Centre and Lee Valley Velo Park.
The plan attracted sharp criticism from users of the tennis centre, who believed loss of the indoor courts would erode Olympic legacy and ‘severely affect’ the development of tennis talent. The Lawn Tennis Association, the governing body for padel in Britain, described it as ‘particularly disappointing’.
Now the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA), which proposed the padel plan together with centre operator GLL, has announced it is ‘pausing work’ on the project – just weeks before contractors were due to be appointed – in order for its board to review the position. A spokesman added: “Tennis community representatives will have the opportunity to speak to members of our Executive Committee at their next meeting in a few weeks.”
That meeting is due at the end of July and will be open to the public.
Rackets expansion
Introducing indoor padel to Lee Valley (outdoor courts were discounted earlier this year due to concerns about planning and revenues) appealed to LVRPA because it expanded the centre’s rackets sports offering and was anticipated to double usage of the indoor space, from 4,000 tennis players to some 8,300 padel players per month. Additional revenue from the new courts was planned to support longer opening hours of the outside tennis courts, potentially giving tennis players an extra six hours of court time per day.
In addition, GLL planned to use the new padel courts to boost the centre’s junior rackets programme, offer an adaptive padel programme for people in wheelchairs and expand its work with inactive and older adults.
A report to the LVRPA executive committee outlining the proposals described padel as the ‘fastest growing sport in the world with participation more than tripling in recent years’, with its social format making it ‘an attractive way for people of all ages and abilities to get active’. It noted that the LTA was working to grow participation to 200,000 per month and, in contrast, stated that tennis participation was declining.
The authority felt the Lee Valley centre was ‘uniquely placed to capture this growing market’, adding: “There are two major [padel] developments in nearby boroughs of Stratford and Ilford which are showing rapid growth. The Stratford development is built on land earmarked for development and so will be displaced in 2026.”
Legacy
In objecting to the plan, the LTA pointed out that tennis participation in April was the highest on record, with 5.8 million adults playing at least once a year, up by 51% on January 2019. Adult monthly participation has also grown to 2.6 million players, up 100% from January 2019.
An LTA spokesperson added: “These plans are particularly disappointing as the LTA and Tennis Foundation invested half a million pounds in the original tennis facility which is an important legacy from the London 2012 Paralympics. The courts are still heavily used with over 700 children on the programme, 100,000 players accessing the facilities each year, a thriving disability programme and links to local schools.
“The data cited by LVRPA on tennis participation falling is incorrect and we will be engaging with LVRPA and the operator GLL to encourage them to consider other options that can see both tennis and padel played on site.”
However, The Bandeja understands that of the 680 tennis players signed up to coaching programmes at Lee Valley, 254 of them are children. Overall player numbers per year are 90,000.
Rejected
The indoor padel plans were agreed by LVRPA on June 19th. The authority had previously rejected proposals from its leisure operator GLL to replace two of the centre’s six outside tennis courts with padel due to concerns about planning and projected revenues. It is understood discussions about tennis and padel sharing the indoor space were vetoed due to noise concerns.
GLL – under its Better brand – currently offers padel at four of its leisure centres around the country, working with Game4Padel to deliver the facilities. For Lee Valley, GLL gained initial turnkey costings from Padel House, described as a ‘strong candidate due to their comprehensive service offering and industry reputation’. Work on the project – including improving clubhouse facilities and a viewing area overlooking the courts – was anticipated to start in August with an October opening date. 🎾
