In the first half of 2023 we had in Italy a growth in the no. of facilities of 11% and fields of 15% vs. end of 2022, fans remain stable
Compared with the data at the end of December 2022 (data source Padel Observatory “Mr. Padel Paddle”) we had an increase in facilities (sports clubs, padel clubs, accommodation facilities) of 11% which increased from 2,792 to 3,111 (319 more).
For courts the increase was 15% from 7,128 to 8,163 (delta of 1,035 courts).
As many as 2 goals were exceeded thus the 3,000 facilities where padel can be played in Italy and the quota of 8,000 fields scattered around our peninsula.
37% of the fields of this racket sport are Indoor, 3,841 fields distributed over 1,081 sports centers equipped with covers.
If we consider only 2023 this share rises to 40%.
After three quarters of decline in the birth of new clubs there has been a return to growth compared to the previous quarter as shown in the graph below:
The next two quarters of 2023 will be critical to see if there is a reversal of the trend or if it was a quarter, the spring quarter, where there tended to be more openings for the year.
In six months there were more than 1,000 installations while the outlook for 2023 is placed in a range of 1,300-1600 fields so we are currently beyond the forecast.
The average number of pitches per single facility remains constant at 2.6, if we consider only the new 2023 facilities the average is 2.8 pitches per club still below the 4 pitches per club which is what is considered sustainable by the industry insiders.
There are 1,409 municipalities with the presence of at least one facility where padel can be played, representing 18% of all municipalities in Italy.
Regional situation
The absolute regions with the largest number of camps and facilities are always Lazio (1,826 camps and 551 facilities) followed by Lombardy (1,058;235) and Sicily (778;298).
Lazio is therefore the region with the highest incidence of fields in Italy (22 percent of the fields in our country are concentrated in Lazio, Lombardy 13 percent).
Relative to indoor play, Lombardy is always in the lead with 768 fields (1/4 of all indoor fields in Italy), then Lazio (566) and Piedmont (302).
In this first half of the year while the region that had the most field installations was Lazio (187 of which 115 were at new clubs) as clubs was Lombardy (44).
Relative to the No. of municipalities where there are clubs where to play the sport we have that Lombardy has more than 225 municipalities where to play, then there is Piedmont (140) followed by Lazio (116) and Campania 110.
In Umbria, Puglia and Tuscany, more than a third of their municipalities have locations where they can play.
The province/metropolitan city with the most fields is always Rome with 1,426 (383 clubs), followed by 3 other provinces with at least 100 clubs namely Milan with 413 fields (102 clubs) , Turin with 324 fields (121 clubs) and Naples 281 (127).
The population ratio camps in Italy
As camps are installed, the ratio of population numbers per camp drops.
In six months there has been a drop in Italy from one field for every 8,468 inhabitants to 7,394.
In Lazio, the ratio is 3,220 (approaching the Spanish benchmark of around 3,000) , Umbria 3,557 and Abruzzo 4,769.
In Friuli Venezia Giulia , Basilicata and Trentino Alto Adige the ratios are very high above 20,000 inhabitants per field.
Among the provinces we have Latina with 2,820 inhabitants per field, followed by Syracuse (2,957) and Rome (3,045).
If we consider municipalities with a population above 50,000, Montesilvano is the municipality with the lowest ratio in Italy with 1,322 (although being close to Pescara it serves all the fans in the Abruzzo province).
Stable fans on Padel social media
We analyzed, as in 2022, Meta (Instagram,Facebook) data of those who follow the sport.
At the end of June in Italy there are an estimated 4,350,000 profiles that are padel fans (there were 4,390,000 as of December 2022) of which 3,050,000 are men (70% of the total) and 1,300,000 are women.
Compared to the previous survey, men went up by about 60,000 while female profiles dropped by 100,000.
It is Lombardy the region with the most social fans with 700,000 followers followed by Lazio (622,000) and Campania (445,000) but if we consider only women there are more fans from Lazio than Lombardy (223,000 vs. 211,000).
by Carlo Ferrara
For those who would like more in-depth local analysis on the development of padel in Italy* can write to Mr Padel Paddle Observatory at the following email info@mrpadelpaddle.com
*Service fee based on type of request
related articles:
Padel in Italia, ulteriore crescita nel primo trimestre 2023
Il padel in Italia, come si è sviluppato e i numeri del 2022
Analisi sullo sviluppo del Padel in Italia: Anno 2021
Analisi sullo sviluppo del Padel in Italia: Anno 2020
