Brighton & Hove set for a summer of padel love
Brighton & Hove City Council has selected Game4Padel to operate a combined tennis and padel facility at its new Hove Beach Park.
The park is being created through the Kingsway to the Sea project, which aims to regenerate underused facilities and green spaces on the seafront in West Hove by creating a new park stretching from Hove Lagoon to the King Alfred Leisure Centre.
Predominantly funded by the government’s Levelling Up Fund, the park is expected to be completed towards the end of the year, with the tennis and padel facilities opening earlier in the summer.
Coun Julie Cattell, Lead Member for Major Projects, said: “We are looking forward to seeing tennis and padel thrive as part of a strong sports offering in the new park alongside bowls, croquet, the new skatepark, pump track and roller area.
“Game4Padel has extensive experience of operating padel facilities alongside tennis. Many of its venues also offer tennis or operate at multi-sport destinations, and many of their coaches straddle both tennis and padel.”
Withdean plans
Game4Padel will be responsible for the six tennis and four padel courts at the site, facilitating bookings, running coaching and building a thriving racket sport community.
The company, which has tennis stars Andy and Jamie Murray, Annabel Croft and Andrew Castle as investors, has been operating an uncovered pop-up padel court at Withdean Sports Complex in Brighton since October 2022 and has planning permission to install a permanent, three-court covered floodlit facility there. The temporary court at Withdean has been extremely popular with excellent court occupancy, with ‘significant demand’ in the city for more padel facilities, according to Game4Padel. The new courts at Withdean are planned to open this summer.
Game4Padel CEO Michael Gradon said: “We are delighted to have been selected following a competitive pitch for this exciting regeneration project. We pride ourselves on our ability to build vibrant communities where we operate our venues and we are sure that with the current demand for padel and tennis in Brighton and Hove this site will soon become a thriving location for anyone wanting to play these racket sports.
“Our focus is on making sure that everybody feels welcome to play at Hove Beach Park. We have built our padel business on a ‘pay & play’ approach to ensure that padel is accessible to all and will be adopting a similar approach across padel and tennis here in Brighton and Hove.
“With the new facilities at Withdean coming soon as well, we hope that Brighton and Hove can look forward to becoming a real hub for padel, as well as tennis. One where we can host major events, tournaments, social events and fixtures across both sites, as well as developing the sports at the grassroots level.” 🎾
