#padelcourt — Public Fediverse posts

SWANSEA: How padel went from two courts to a national series in three years

Three years ago padel in Swansea meant two outdoor courts beside a football pitch. This weekend Swansea hosts the opening event of a national series, with players from their twenties to their sixties competing in Llansamlet.

The UK Padel Masters Series opens at Jaxx Padel on Saturday and Sunday, the first of five events the organiser says will take it to venues in Wales, England, Scotland and Portugal before the finals in March. Men’s and women’s draws run in four age groups, Open, Over 40, Over 50 and Over 60, with an Over 70 category hoped for at later events.

Jaxx, on the old Press Glass site at Mill Stream Way in Llansamlet, has nine indoor courts and four outside, is open 6am to 11pm, and calls itself Wales’ largest indoor padel centre. It belongs to Swansea.com, the group behind Pure Swansea.

The group says it put the city’s first two courts in at the Pure Swansea ground in 2023 and added three more in July last year “due to demand”. By its own count that makes 18 courts across the two sites.

‘They don’t seem to be going away’

Padel is tennis crossed with squash: a court a third the size of a tennis court, walled in glass and mesh so the ball stays in play off the back, and a solid racket with no strings. It was invented in Acapulco in 1969 and reached Britain slowly, with about 15,000 players in 2019.

The Lawn Tennis Association counted around 860,000 last year. It now puts the number at more than 1.4 million, on 2,353 courts, and says 6,664 people have entered its competitions so far this year against 5,000 in the whole of 2025.

Swansea Council‘s tourism manager Steve Hopkins put it more plainly to councillors in April. When padel courts turned up in the council’s study of the bay foreshore, he said: “Dare I say it, padel courts, they don’t seem to be going away.”

Six at Parc Tawe, three in Mumbles, two in Neath

Pure Padel Clubs wants six indoor courts in the Ninja Warrior unit at Parc Tawe. Its application says its courts elsewhere are busy more than 90 per cent of the time, and that it struggled to find anywhere else in Swansea big enough.

Ninja Warrior’s owner, Burhill Group, says no final decision has been made and the centre is trading as normal.

Mumbles is next. The council has applied to build three courts on the old seafront tennis courts between the Oyster House and the bowling green, after a consultation in which it says most people asked for racquet sports, and padel most of all.

“Padel is one of the fastest-growing sports in the UK and is attracting people of all ages because it’s fun, social and easy to learn,” cabinet member Cllr Andrew Stevens said.

Businessman Rico Maza has offered £400,000 of his own money to build and run four courts on the site himself in return for a long lease. Mumbles Action Group’s alternative keeps the courts too, and swaps the car park for a lido.

Across the border, Neath Sports Centre is in line for two courts on its unused tennis courts by spring 2027, the first in Neath Port Talbot. The council’s foreshore study wants courts beside the Singleton boating lake as well.

‘Still competing decades later’

Nick Baker, chief executive of UK Padel, said: “Padel is wonderfully accessible and sociable, it also brings out a competitive spirit in people of all ages. You can pick up a racket for the first time, discover a love of the game and still be competing decades later.”

He added: “This weekend captures everything that makes the sport so special, with schoolchildren representing their schools in Bristol while players in their sixties are competing alongside younger generations at our Masters Series in Swansea.”

UK Padel says women made up half the field at last season’s Masters finals, and more than 220 players entered last month’s Over 60 Padel County Cup. On Sunday its Schools Under-18 Championships return to Rocket Padel Bristol with more than 25 schools, after 132 players took part last year.

Last year’s UK Padel Schools Championships at Rocket Padel Bristol, which drew 132 players (Image: UK Padel)

Matches from Swansea will be streamed on UK Padel’s YouTube channel through the weekend, with the Bristol results to follow.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

MUMBLES: Padel courts to replace the old seafront tennis courts, and the car park is coming back
The council’s own application, announced last week.

MUMBLES: Businessman’s alternative padel plan would use £400,000 of his own money
Rico Maza’s offer to build and run the seafront courts himself.

PARC TAWE: Ninja Warrior venue could be replaced by six padel courts under new plans
Pure Padel’s application for the retail park unit.

PADEL AND PILATES: £3.3m for Neath Port Talbot’s gyms
Neath’s two courts, due by spring 2027.

Padel coverage from Swansea Bay News
Every court, plan and application across the region.

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MUMBLES: Businessman’s alternative padel plan would use £400,000 of his own money, so the council doesn’t have to

A businessman with family in Mumbles has offered to spend £400,000 of his own money turning the old seafront tennis courts into four padel courts.

Rico Maza wants a long lease on the site in return, with Swansea Council keeping the land and collecting the rent.

It is an alternative to the council’s own plans for three courts and a car park on Mumbles Gardens, the site between the Oyster House and Oystermouth Bowls Club.

Mumbles Action Group set out a rival vision on Saturday, with a lido and games court instead of the car park.

Mr Maza says he has written to the council and local councillors. “I’ve not heard anything back from the council or councillors,” he said.

£400,000 padel offer: four floodlit courts and pay-and-play

He would build four enclosed glass and mesh courts to Lawn Tennis Association standards, floodlit for evening games, with online booking and pay-and-play.

There would be coaching, leagues and junior sessions, he says, and cheaper off-peak rates for local residents.

The £400,000 would pay for the courts, glass, lighting, surfacing and installation. Maintenance, insurance and the day-to-day running would be his responsibility for the length of the lease.

Under his offer, he says, the council “keeps ownership of the land, receives a rental income, and has no capital outlay or ongoing maintenance and operating responsibilities”.

Only a few parking spaces would be needed, he says.

Tree planting to screen Mumbles Road neighbours from noise and light

Mr Maza accepts the courts are close to homes. Roadside trees and landscaping would screen sound and light, he says, and the floodlights would be angled to limit light spill.

Who is Rico Maza?

Rico Maza (Image: Rico Maza)

He says he has spent many years running council sports facilities and park catering sites around London and Essex.

He is moving to Mumbles, where his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter live. His daughter-in-law’s family “have lived there all their lives”, he said.

A Lawn Tennis Association member and a club tennis player “for a lifetime”, he is new to padel himself. “I’m new to paddle tennis, but the excitement it brings is unmatched,” he said.

He would bring in “one or two of the best paddle coaches available”, teaching everyone from “complete beginners like myself” to players who want to compete at a higher level.

Getting the coaching right from day one matters, he said: “Building a high-quality coaching program from the outset would help establish the facility as a genuine centre for developing the sport.”

‘I would also be interested in running the paddle tennis facility for the council’

If the council presses on with its own three courts, Mr Maza says he would like to run them.

He thinks it would save the council money in the long run. “In my opinion the council work with the best intentions, but the cost of delivering and operating projects can sometimes increase considerably over time,” he said.

He accepts the council “has its own plans in motion”, and says he would welcome a meeting with its property, regeneration and leisure teams.

The council’s plan: three courts and the car park back

The council’s own application has no cost, no opening date and no word yet on who would run the courts or what a game would cost.

It asked Mumbles in January last year what should replace the tennis courts, and says padel was the sport most people named.

Cllr Andrew Stevens, cabinet member for environment and infrastructure, said the plans showed “we have listened carefully to what our communities want”.

Some residents commenting online have questioned giving part of the site over to parking, while others welcomed padel as a sport that is easier to pick up than tennis.

Leasing out tennis courts would not be new for the council. Last year it offered three under-used courts at Langland for redevelopment on a long lease.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

MUMBLES: Campaign group’s alternative plan for the old tennis courts swaps the car park for a lido
Mumbles Action Group’s rival vision for the site.

MUMBLES: Padel courts to replace the old seafront tennis courts, and the car park is coming back
The council’s own plan for three courts and a car park.

Langland Bay tennis court site may be redeveloped to include new leisure facilities
The council’s offer of three Langland courts on a long lease.

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MUMBLES: Campaign group’s alternative plan for the old tennis courts swaps the car park for a lido

A lido and a games court instead of a car park: that is what a Mumbles campaign group wants on the old seafront tennis courts.

Mumbles Action Group, which has around 4,800 members on Facebook, has shared its own plan for the site between the Oyster House and Oystermouth Bowls Club.

It keeps the padel courts in the council’s plans, but puts an outdoor pool and a multi-use games area, a fenced court for sports like basketball and netball, where the council would bring back around 20 parking spaces.

The council’s plan: three padel courts and a car park, with the bowling green untouched (Image: Swansea Council)

Michael Eames, an administrator of the group, said the site was “a community space and should remain so”.

Car parks do not bring visitors, he argues. “Mumbles is a tourist destination not a car park,” he said.

Lido and games court: ‘Why can’t we have the best in Mumbles?’

In a post to the group, he wrote that “swimmers would love it, kids would be blown away” and that it would “enhance the area”.

An AI-generated image shared by Mumbles Action Group showing a lido and games court on the site (Image: Mumbles Action Group)

He also predicted the council’s answer: “Oooooerrrr we got no money” or “Ooooerrr it will be too expensive”.

He wants the council to “get some quotes together, do some surveys, see what grants are available”. “Why can’t we have the best in Mumbles, we pay for it!” he wrote.

He puts what Mumbles pays the council in parking charges alone at around £5m.

Mumbles tennis courts: residents say the site keeps shrinking

The council’s own sign on the fence names the site Mumbles Gardens, and records that the tennis courts were paid for by Mumbles Community Council.

Members of the group say there were once four tennis courts on the site, and that one was lost to the neighbouring Oyster Wharf development.

Under the council’s plan, what is left would be split between three padel courts and the car park. Some residents worry that land given over to parking will never come back.

Others fear Langland could be next. Last year the council offered three under-used tennis courts there for redevelopment on a long lease.

Mr Eames says Oyster Wharf took 58 parking spaces, the M&S site another 76 potential spaces and the new prom another 18. “Now we turn public community spaces into car parks… that’s madness!” he wrote.

Not everyone in Mumbles Action Group is convinced

Some members said the village’s parking problem had to be solved first, and one called the idea a waste of council tax money that should be spent elsewhere in Swansea.

Others questioned the picture itself. It was made with an AI tool, and shows basketball hoops on a court painted in padel colours.

Mr Eames accepts a seawater lido would be “out of the question” without the water being pumped in, filtered, cleaned and monitored.

A lido appears in the Civic Centre plans only as a possible future phase. Blackpill Lido, the bay’s existing outdoor pool, is a wide, shallow pool best loved by young children.

Swansea Council’s plan: three padel courts and the parking back

The council says padel was the sport most people named when it asked Mumbles in January last year what should replace the tennis courts.

Bringing back the parking lost to the sea defence works was a promise it made before the work started.

Cllr Andrew Stevens, cabinet member for environment and infrastructure, said the plans showed “we have listened carefully to what our communities want”.

The application will go before the council’s own planning committee. No date had been set when it was announced last week.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

MUMBLES: Padel courts to replace the old seafront tennis courts, and the car park is coming back
The council’s own plan for the site.

Swansea Council seeking local view on the future of a key Mumbles location
The January 2025 consultation on what should replace the tennis courts.

Langland Bay tennis court site may be redeveloped to include new leisure facilities
The council’s offer of three Langland courts on a long lease.

SWANSEA: Civic Centre plans finally go in, and the small print tells its own story
Where the lido stands in the Civic Centre plans.

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MUMBLES: Padel courts to replace the old seafront tennis courts, and the car park is coming back

The old tennis courts on Mumbles Road are to become three padel courts, with the car park that vanished under the sea wall works back beside them.

The site between the Oyster House and Oystermouth Bowls Club has been out of use for years, first as the builders’ compound for the £26.5m sea defences, then fenced off while Swansea Council decided what to do with it.

Now the council has put in its own planning application: three courts, the parking reinstated, a new footpath from Mumbles Road through to the seafront, and planting to match the new prom.

What Mumbles asked for

The council’s images show the courts in a row against the bowling green, which is untouched, with a car park of around 20 bays in front, two of them marked for electric vehicles, and the Oyster House terrace looking over the lot.

The courts, car park and new path seen from above Mumbles Road, with the bowling green untouched (Image: Swansea Council)

The council asked residents, businesses and visitors in January last year what should go there, acknowledging that some wanted the tennis courts back and others had “further ideas”.

It says the answer was overwhelming: racquet sports should return, and padel was the one most people named.

Cllr Andrew Stevens, the cabinet member for environment and infrastructure, said the plans showed “we have listened carefully to what our communities want and we are delivering on that feedback”.

The parking promise

The sea wall and the wider prom opened in July last year, and the redesign took car parking with it. Keeping the same number of spaces was a commitment the council made before the work started, and the site is where it is honouring it.

Cllr Stevens said reinstating the spaces would provide “convenience for visitors and supporting local businesses”. The plans as announced do not put a number on them.

From 15,000 players to 860,000

Padel is tennis crossed with squash: a court a third the size of a tennis court, walled in glass and mesh so the ball stays in play off the back, and a solid racket with no strings. It was invented in Acapulco in 1969.

In 2019 about 15,000 people in the UK played it. The Lawn Tennis Association counted around 860,000 last year, more than double the year before.

“Padel is one of the fastest-growing sports in the UK and is attracting people of all ages because it’s fun, social and easy to learn,” Cllr Stevens said.

Swansea already has Jaxx Padel, which calls itself Wales’ largest indoor padel centre, with nine indoor courts and more outside. Six more indoor courts are proposed for the Ninja Warrior unit at Parc Tawe, Neath Sports Centre is getting two on its unused tennis courts by spring 2027, and the council’s foreshore study wants courts beside the Singleton boating lake. The Mumbles plans are the first the council has put in for itself.

What the plans don’t say yet

There is no cost, no opening date and no word on who will run the courts or what a game will cost. The application goes to the council’s own planning committee; no date has been set.

Cllr Stevens said the council was “delighted to be bringing these exciting facilities to Mumbles, creating new opportunities for people to get active while making the most of this prime seafront location”.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

Swansea Council seeking local view on the future of a key Mumbles location
The January 2025 consultation that asked what should replace the tennis courts.

Mumbles coastal flood defence scheme officially opens
The £26.5m sea wall and prom, and the parking that went with it.

PARC TAWE: Ninja Warrior venue could be replaced by six padel courts under new plans
The other padel application in Swansea.

More Mumbles news from Swansea Bay News
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PARC TAWE: Ninja Warrior venue could be replaced by six padel courts under new plans

One of Swansea’s best-known family activity venues could be replaced by courts for one of the country’s fastest-growing racket sports.

Plans have been lodged to turn the Ninja Warrior UK Adventure Park at Parc Tawe into a six-court indoor padel facility, in a move that would end the obstacle-course attraction’s four-year run at the retail park.

The venue is the large unit shared with Aldi, on the site of the former Toys R Us, facing the car park at the southern end of the park.

The unit sits alongside Aldi in the former Toys R Us building at Parc Tawe. Image: Google Maps

The application, submitted to Swansea Council by Pure Padel Clubs Ltd, would see the ground floor turned into five doubles courts and one singles court, with a new mezzanine level, changing rooms, showers, a reception and a café.

Ninja Warrior’s parent company confirmed it is reviewing the venue’s future. Burhill Group Ltd, which also runs the Bunkers! crazy golf, darts and ping-pong venue off Wind Street, said it had been talking to a padel operator but had not reached a decision.

Chief operating officer Stephen Brown said the company had engaged a UK padel operator to explore potential future uses for the site, and that a planning application had been submitted to the council.

He added that no final decision had been made, that Ninja Warrior Swansea continues to operate as normal until further notice, and that the company’s immediate priority was keeping staff informed.

The centre opened to considerable fanfare in 2022, modelled on the Ninja Warrior UK television game show, with an array of obstacles, tunnels and towers. Co-host and football pundit Chris Kamara attended the launch and praised the course as “as good as it gets”.

Padel is a racket sport that blends elements of tennis and squash, played on an enclosed court roughly a third of the size of a tennis court and surrounded by walls of glass and metal mesh. It is recognised by the Lawn Tennis Association, which has ambitions to grow the game across Britain.

The sport is spreading quickly across Swansea. Earlier this year the council unveiled proposals that included padel courts along the foreshore between the marina and Blackpill, among a wider vision for the bay.

Pure Padel says it struggled to find anywhere else in Swansea big enough. Padel courts need a lot of floor space and a high ceiling, and after searching commercial property listings in late June the operator concluded there was nowhere closer to the city centre that fit — leaving the Parc Tawe unit, it says, as its best option.

The company, which says it runs sites across England and one in Scotland, wants Wales to be its next move, with hopes of opening 30 venues within five years. It says its courts elsewhere are busy more than 90 per cent of the time, and that an indoor home means play carries on whatever the weather.

It says it would run a junior programme at weekends and hold women-only sessions and sessions for older players, with coaches trained in Spain — the country where the sport took off.

Parc Tawe rose on the filled-in North Dock in the late 1980s and was given a £15m makeover a decade ago — the overhaul that brought the UK’s very first Denny’s, the American diner chain, to Swansea, alongside the Odeon cinema and bowling alley that anchor the park today. It is now owned by regeneration company Centurion Group, whose wider plans for the city include the former Debenhams store in the centre.

The council is expected to decide on the plans later this year. Until then, Ninja Warrior stays open.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

Padel courts, zip wire and a year-round lido: Swansea’s big plans for the bay
The council’s vision for the foreshore between the marina and Blackpill.

Planning permission secured for drive-through restaurant at Parc Tawe
Another change at the Parc Tawe retail and leisure park.

New arrivals, fresh casualties and the tenants tipped to fill the former Debenhams
Where things stand with Centurion’s plans for Swansea retail.

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Padel boomt, vor allem in NRW. Für die Tennisvereine ist das ein Segen. Im kommerziellen Bereich muss Tennis dagegen zurückstecken.#WDR #Tennis #Padel #Verdrängung #TGNordDüsseldorf #CarmenHerrscher #AlexKautz #CubePadel #TennisverbandMittelrhein #UtzUecker #Tennisvereine #Padelcourt #Feedmanager #NRW
Ist der Padel-Boom in NRW eine Gefahr für den Tennissport?

Padel courts, zip wire and a year-round lido: Swansea’s big plans for the bay — but no answers on the slip bridge

The plans were presented to councillors at a meeting of the economy and infrastructure service transformation committee on 2 April, where a feasibility study commissioned in 2024 was laid out in full for the first time.

The study covers the foreshore corridor from West Pier at Swansea Marina all the way to the Clyne River Bridge at Blackpill — deliberately steering clear of the Civic Centre site, which is already being redeveloped by Urban Splash, and Mumbles, where a major seawall and promenade project has recently been completed.

Mumbles prom as it looks now
(Image: Swansea Council)

Steve Hopkins, the council’s strategic manager for tourism, marketing and special events, told councillors that tourism is already worth £658 million a year to Swansea’s economy and supports 5,400 jobs, with 4.62 million visitors recorded in 2024. But the study was blunt about the bay’s shortcomings. The official report identifies a “lack of vibrancy and facilities along the foreshore” and an “undefined unique selling point” compared to other UK seaside destinations, with the road dominating and facilities in poor condition in places.

Nearly 800 people were consulted as part of the study — including seafront businesses, beach users, residents and councillors — and the message was consistent: more eateries, better toilets, improved seating, barbecue spots, public art, viewing platforms, beach-related retail and easier access to the beach itself. Better and cheaper parking also came through strongly, as did a call for the Swansea Bay Rider land train service to be extended eastward past St Helens, in addition to its current westward run towards Mumbles.

Swansea Bay Land Rider Train – photo by Enjoy Swansea

The study divides the foreshore into a series of distinct zones. The promenade area closest to the Civic Centre would get separate “fast” and “slow” routes for cyclists and pedestrians, widened surfaces, new seating, tree planting, improved lighting and a new signature sculpture. The St Helens activity zone — which will see the Ospreys return to St Helens Stadium — would get improved public realm to make the matchday and events experience better for spectators, with pop-up food stalls and a large screen among the ideas. The ecology area near the foot golf site would become a nature education centre, using the existing building, with better interpretation and footpaths allowing visitors to explore SSSI habitats closer to the shore.

The centrepiece of the near-term ambitions is Blackpill. The study proposes significantly expanding the lido and surrounding area, with a relocated zip line and crazy golf from Singleton Park, a new flexible events space with a tensile structure for all-year use, a new pedestrian and cycle bridge over the Clyne River, formalised beach access points, planting to improve the road frontage and food and drink including a beach bar. The aim is to make the lido somewhere people visit in January as well as July.

Blackpill Lido
(Image: Swansea Council)

Padel courts are also specifically proposed near the Singleton Park boating lake, alongside upgraded kiosks, terraced banks and improved planting. Hopkins acknowledged the sport’s rapid spread — “dare I say it, padel courts, they don’t seem to be going away,” he told the committee — but said the foreshore offered a great backdrop for the right facility in the right place. Beach sports zones and designated family areas are also in the mix.

Tracey McNulty, head of cultural services, parks and cleansing, was clear that the plans were early-stage. “At this moment the proposals are very much about improving things gently rather than building new things,” she told the committee. The study is not yet an adopted strategy and no funding has been secured. The next step, officers say, is to develop the proposals into worked-up schemes ready to bid for capital funding when opportunities arise — whether through Welsh Government regeneration grants, tourism funding, active travel budgets or partnership with organisations including Swansea University and the Welsh Wildlife Trusts.

Committee chair Cllr Phil Downing welcomed the report but asked whether new commercial activity along the foreshore could drain footfall from the city centre — a concern officers said they had factored in, with the aim being to attract new visitors rather than displace existing spending. Cllr Mike White called the bay “absolutely tremendous” and asked about beach volleyball, log cabin lookout points and whether boats could return to the boating lake, citing busy volleyball events he had seen in Bournemouth as an example of what the space could host.

The slip bridge at it’s current resting place on Swansea promenade

One question councillors couldn’t get a straight answer on was the future of the slip bridge. Cllr White raised it directly, but Tracey McNulty told the committee it hadn’t been included in the study, describing it as “a live topic, an issue structurally with highways” and adding that she wasn’t party to that discussion. The slip bridge — a much-loved Victorian iron footbridge that once connected the promenade to the foreshore near St Helens — remains dismantled, with its arch currently sitting on the cycle path near St Helens and the original stone abutments standing unused along Oystermouth Road. Swansea Council has allocated £139,000 to assist the Friends of Swansea Slip Bridge, and campaigners are pushing for a replica built from modern steel after the original 1915 span was deemed beyond repair. But its future remained unresolved at the meeting — and absent from the official report entirely.

Cllr Downing closed the meeting on a lighter note, suggesting saunas could be added to the foreshore offer for winter visitors.

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