Steve Goswell interview: Funding specialist on challenges and opportunities for padel in UK

Steve Goswell, a funding consultant with almost 20 years of experience in tennis, is now receiving growing enquiries about padel as interest in the sport surges in the UK. He shares his views with Padel Business Magazine on funding options, revenue potential and strategic site planning.

With padel set for rapid expansion in the UK over the next few years, funding is being increasingly sought after by clubs, councils and other organisations as the race to open new facilities gathers pace.

One expert well-placed to share his perspective on the latest developments is Steve Goswell, who has raised in total over £1 million in grants for tennis clubs across the country.

Goswell took up tennis in his mid-40s and began voluntary fundraising before setting up his firm Funding4Tennis in 2017.  

Over the last 18 years he has sourced grants for projects including new indoor and outdoor courts, court resurfacing, floodlights, clubhouses, coaching, equipment and gate access technology.

His move into funding work followed his efforts at Cambridge Lawn Tennis Club (CLTC), an inclusive, community-based not-for-profit club, where Goswell was senior coach and coaching coordinator from 2004 to 2007. 

During this period he applied for grants from various organisations, and secured over £80,000 in funding for coaching programmes, the resurfacing of two courts, draining and resurfacing of a large car park, and a major upgrade to the clubhouse. 

His idea to set up a fund to support tennis facility development in collaboration with the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) was then realised in late 2015. The scheme, entitled ‘The Cambridgeshire Fund,’ ran for five years, and by late 2019 over £570,000 had been invested in facilities projects within Cambridgeshire tennis, with £370,000 coming from third-party grants.

Goswell has since worked with clubs and councils across the East of England to secure grants and in addition at present he is working with clubs in Sussex, Devon and Scotland.

He is now also looking to assist the development of padel in the UK amid the surge in the sport’s popularity. While he is yet to source funding for any padel facilities, he says he has received “a number of enquiries for help and advice.”

New University of Cambridge padel courts highlight potential revenues

Goswell notes that padel can “bring in substantial income”, pointing as an example to two uncovered courts at the University of Cambridge which opened in September.

The facility, located within the university’s sports complex, is open to the public and includes access to changing rooms and a café. The cost for court bookings is £28 per hour (£7 per person) for members and £36 per hour (£9 per person) for non-members.

According to data provided to Padel Business Magazine by the University of Cambridge, the average utilisation rate since opening has been 58%, rising to 80% for instructor-led sessions and 100% for social padel evening events. Construction and maintenance costs have been covered by the university through facility-generated revenue, and plans are underway to increase the number of courts in the next 12 months.

Goswell says the pricing structure such as that adopted by the University of Cambridge is not considered excessive, and notes that at £28 per hour, a facility “would only need four hours a day of bookings for two courts for say 200 days a year for income to exceed £44,000 a year.”

However, he stresses that “the cost of building new padel courts is high,” with a pair of open air floodlit courts typically costing around £200,000  including VAT, and the cost for a pair of covered courts well over £300,000 including VAT, although he points out that covered courts would “offer substantially more use time” than open-air courts.

Strategic site planning for padel

A further challenge for new padel facilities is funding a suitable site. “Locations for padel are limited,” Goswell observes. “Padel is noisy so courts need to be some distance from dwellings. Locations in city or other urban areas are more likely to attract players to this new sport, but the closeness of many tennis clubs to housing will make them unsuitable as far as noise is concerned.”

He suggests that “golf driving ranges, golf courses and garden centres may be good locations for new padel venues,” adding that “disused farm buildings might also offer opportunities for indoor padel courts”, as farms are being encouraged to find other uses for such sites.

Providing access is a further issue to consider, and Goswell notes that while “there are gate lock systems that can give automatic access to courts, you would probably need staff present to allocate courts and loan or sell padel bats and balls.”

He adds: “In addition, a padel venue needs to have access to toilets and a water supply – plus, ideally, changing rooms and a café.”

Grants and interest-free loans among funding options for padel 

When it comes to potential sources of funding for the construction of new padel facilities in the UK, Goswell notes that “grants and interest-free loans are available to not-for-profit organisations,” adding that “funding is geographical and varies across the country.”

He adds: “Once constructed, grants are also available to not-for-profit organisations to subsidise free or low-cost coaching sessions designed to increase participation.”

However, he notes that for a new padel facility “to obtain, for example, a £30,000 grant they would normally need to have the balance of funding available, either in cash or a loan.”

LTA offers interest-free loans for padel facilities

A key potential source of funding is the LTA, which is the national governing body for padel in the UK. In September it launched a new five-year strategy for the sport. 

The first phase of the strategy, from 2024 to the end of 2026, includes commitments to increase the number of courts from 350 to 1,000, grow the number of players from 129,000 to 400,000 and increase the coach and activator workforce from 40 to 700.

As part of its efforts to boost participation in the sport across the country, the LTA offers a ‘Quick Access Loan Scheme’ which provides interest-free loans for padel facilities.

The scheme has so far been used by padel sites including East Glos in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire; Sundridge Park in Bromley, Greater London; and The Triangle in Burgess Hill, West Sussex.

Further details of the scheme are available on the LTA website, and the body states that the funding is available “to help venues deliver projects that will grow the number of people playing” padel, adding: “To attract new players within local communities it is critical that there's access to quality all year-round facilities and therefore the LTA will be prioritising the installation and construction of covered courts.”

Goswell notes that aside from the LTA and commercial investors, other sources of potential funding are in a state of flux. “Grant options are geographical and changing all the time,” he explains, noting for instance that while the public body Sport England did previously offer substantial grants for capital projects its funding has been reduced to offering part-matching of crowdfunding schemes. 

How padel can learn lessons from development of tennis

Examining the potential for padel in the UK, Goswell observes that as well as being popular among young age groups, “because it is played as doubles on a relatively small court it is also attractive to older squash and lawn tennis players who are beginning to lose their mobility. The smaller court also favours participants with disabilities.”

However, with padel looking set for spectacular growth in the UK over the coming years, concerns persist about how sustainable its expansion will be, following the series of padel club closures in Sweden.

Goswell believes the future of padel in the UK will “depend on how it is managed,” and suggests that in many ways it can learn some lessons from the development of tennis.

“My experience with tennis is that one or two tennis courts available for public hire struggle to survive,” he explains. “For tennis the club model with coaching, matches, membership leagues, social sessions and social activities works. Padel venues that can include some or most of these will have a better chance of survival''. He adds: ''The lawn tennis model of a club with at least three courts may also work for padel.''

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