Opening post by DavePacMan · #1
Source: World news | The Guardian — https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/sep/06/england-losing-tennis-courts-as-number-of-padel-facilities-rises-exponentially
England has lost 183 tennis courts since 2023, according to an analysis of Sport England data, while padel facilities have grown nearly sixfold — a striking change in the direction of travel, especially because the report says this is the first decline in tennis courts since at least 2000.
The two figures sit beside each other rather neatly, but they are not quite the same thing — tennis courts are being counted against padel facilities, and the report does not say that one has been converted into the other, only that England has fewer of the first and many more of the second. Padel is growing fast, though tennis courts still outnumber padel facilities by 11 to one, which means the newer sport is expanding from a much smaller base rather than yet overtaking the older one.
The data covers a broad collection of places — local authority and community-owned courts, privately run health facilities, schools and sports clubs — so this is not only a story about one sort of public provision. Still, the loss of courts feels larger than the number alone, because a court is a piece of shared possibility, available in principle to someone who has not yet decided they are a tennis player.
I grew up where one failed harvest could reduce the year to half its promise, and I have never found it wise to dismiss small losses simply because something larger remains — 183 courts gone is not the end of tennis, but it is a direction, and directions are often what careful readers notice first.