Profitable trend sport: Padel makes the cash registers ring in Switzerland

This attracts the attention of investors, but can you also make money with padel in the long run? Padel field operators like Timo Helbling believe this. The former ice hockey professional brought Swedish padel company PDL Group to Switzerland. The Swiss subsidiary, in which Helbling is a partner, operates a facility in Zurich and Schaffhausen. Helbling says the sport is still in its infancy. “Padel has the potential to become a great, broad-based sport.”

Padel has several features: The ball sport is easy to learn and the learning curve is steep. Playing the game in pairs increases the fun factor and reduces the cost of playing. Timo Helbling says Padel appeals to a new audience, not just tennis or squash players.

The game also scores economically. The courts, approximately ten x twenty meters in size, are smaller than classic tennis courts. «Space can be used very efficiently and personnel costs are low. A lot of things can be automated,” says Helbling.

Hiag also relies on padel

Real estate companies also want to benefit from this boom. An industry leader with Hiag is building a new facility in Biberist in cooperation with the Lucerne company Padelta. Another real estate giant, Swiss Prime Site, has already implemented temporary padel facilities.

Helbling says homeowners are now even willing to participate in investments. For example, Hiag is renovating the hall in Biberist where the pitches will be set up, and partner Padelta is covering the costs of the facility. According to what we hear from the industry, the cost of a center with five or six playgrounds in total varies between half a million and one million francs.

But the boom may flatten out again. Critical voices can also be heard about the development of Padel in Switzerland, such as sports marketing expert Hans-Willy Brockes: The game has not yet made a breakthrough in Switzerland, there is a lack of a strong league, big clubs and clubs. “heroes and stars”. ». St. “Without these riders, padel will not be a popular sport,” says the managing director of the ESB Marketing Network in St. Gallen.

The Swedish example shows that sports can also grow very quickly. Until the corona epidemic, padel courts were springing up like mushrooms and even football star Zlatan Ibrahimović was opening his own clubs. The result was an oversupply, and nearly 90 companies in the industry were forced to file for bankruptcy last year, according to the Bloomberg agency. According to analysis by consultancy firm Deloitte, there are still around 4,000 fields in the country. According to Deloitte, another 300 of them may disappear.

“We want to avoid Sweden’s mistakes”

Entrepreneur Timo Helbling has learned lessons from developments in Scandinavia. «We want to avoid Sweden’s mistakes and are looking for qualitative growth. City center locations are an option for us. “It is more difficult for sports to gain acceptance in more rural areas.”

There is still a huge need for additional venues in Switzerland, says Yannick Moser, whose Lucerne company Padelta will soon operate six sites across Switzerland. “The market is underdeveloped.” However, Moser wants to expand Padelta, especially in cities. The focus is on “urban locations”.

However, warehouses suitable for padel are usually located in the suburbs. So it’s not in places that attract a lot of people. In order for a hall to be suitable as a space, the ceiling height must be six to ten meters. Such buildings are difficult to find in Switzerland and renting them is expensive. This limits the rapid growth of padel in Switzerland.

Padel entrepreneurs Timo Helbling and Yannick Moser believe the game will be established in Switzerland. It is certain that sports will face adverse winds in this country due to global developments. Consulting firm Deloitte estimates that the number of padel courts worldwide could double to around 85,000 by 2026. In this case, the added value is estimated to be approximately four billion euros. The sport is even being discussed as an Olympic discipline, and more and more companies are coming forward as sponsors, such as Hugo Boss or the Swiss watch companies Certina and Richard Mille.

Padel has also already experienced the most important moment for a sport: the moment when one of the Arab Gulf countries invested. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Dubai are pumping huge amounts of money into popular sports in a bid to gain global influence. Qatar got involved in the padel business. Last summer, the Emirate merged its professional league “Premier Padel” with the rival circuit “World Padel Tour”.