Carr brothers drive 9-court Durham padel plan
Two padel addict brothers have revealed ambitious plans for the largest indoor padel centre in the North East of England.
Adam and Alex Carr hope their scheme for nine-court True Padel in their home town of Durham will ‘transform’ the sports landscape in the region and plug a gap for padel provision in the area.
Their new-launch brand is going into the former 30,000ft2 Soccarena football centre in Belmont Industrial Estate, New Ferens Park. Opening is planned for early 2024. A key feature of the venue is roof height – at its maximum point it offers 14 metres of clearance, which may make it the highest indoor padel centre in the UK.
We’d been seeing courts going up everywhere but there was nothing in the North East of England where we are from.
Alex Carr, co-founder, True Padel
Relocation
The brothers have been playing padel for some four years and have become, as Alex described it, ‘completely addicted’ to the sport. So much so that both left jobs overseas (Adam was working as a business analyst in Switzerland and Alex in the golfing industry in Abu Dhabi) to return home and launch True Padel with the support of friends and family.
“We thought ‘let’s do it and take it home’. We left our jobs to come back and make this a real thing,” said Adam. “We are excited about growing and developing the sport in the North East of England. By providing the region with a top tier facility we are confident that padel will develop significantly within this active and social community where tennis and squash is played heavily already. We really want to share this fantastic sport with the area we know.”
Facilities
True Padel will have nine ‘state-of-the-art’ courts (making it one of the biggest indoor centres in the UK) supported by a sports bar/lounge, changing rooms and pro shop. Close to the facility is a football club and trampoline park, which Adam believes will offer valuable synergies for all three (the set-up is not dissimilar to that of We Are Padel in Derby, which replaced an indoor five-a-side football facility on a retail park adjacent Derby County’s football ground with 11 indoor padel courts).
The new padel centre is well-located, being a mile from the A1, two miles from the centre of Durham, 12 miles from Sunderland, 14 miles from Gateshead and 17 miles from Newcastle. Currently the closest padel courts are around 45 minutes away at Middlesbrough Padel Club.
The brothers intend to manage the business (Adam as general manager and Alex operations manager), bringing in padel coaching for all ages. Hosting leagues, tournaments and social/ corporate events is also high on their agenda. It may even form the start of a True Padel chain across the North East – the brothers are already considering further sites across the region. 🎾
