Following up on the Unofficial Podcast 437 on padel and pickleball in Britain, the LTA wanted to put on the record some of the facts around its role as the national governing body for padel, which were not
accurately reflected on the podcast.
The LTA is a not-for-profit organisation that seeks to govern, promote, grow and develop tennis and
padel for the benefit of local communities.
We are passionate about opening up sport to more and different people so they can enjoy the
physical and mental health benefits that come from being physically active, including those from the
most deprived communities across Britain. We feel we have the knowledge, experience and
wherewithal, as well as an established and thriving infrastructure through which we can continue to
support the growth of tennis and padel in a complementary way.
That infrastructure includes 2m members, 18,500 registered tennis and padel venues, 6,800
accredited coaches, in addition to a vast array of partners who we work with day in and day out - from
the 300 Local Authorities across Britain with whom we have well established relationships, to 40
National, County & Island Associations (including Tennis Scotland and Tennis Wales), to the network
of active partnerships across England, as well as relationships with numerous commercial tennis and
padel operators, government departments and organisations.
Furthermore, there are currently over 5.5m adults playing tennis each year in Britain, some 10% of the
population, a figure that has grown by 48% over the past 5 years. There are also over 3.7m children in
Britain playing tennis, which is some 40% of the population for 16-year-olds and under, a figure that
has also grown over the past few years. Given this, we have no concern that padel or pickleball will
cannibalise tennis, far from it, we feel that padel and pickleball can help reach new and different
people whilst also providing new and different ways for tennis players to enjoy their sport and physical
activity. We are committed to growing both tennis and padel, not one over the other.
There were a number of specific allegations and assertions made in the podcast which we would also
like to correct.
Safeguarding
It is extremely important that any public inference or accusations about safeguarding are based on
facts, rather than speculation and gossip. If anyone has any concerns about safeguarding, including
any alleged incidents of abuse they have an obligation to report these through the appropriate
channels at safetoplaytennis.co.uk, where they will be handled by the LTA’s dedicated team of
safeguarding experts.
The LTA has received the highest rating for its safeguarding work from the NSPCC’s Child Protection
in Sport Unit for the past 7 years, via an annual independent assessment. In 2022 the LTA received
an award for 'Outstanding Contribution to Safeguarding' at the Sacpa Annual Safeguarding Awards.
Safeguarding is a critically important area of our work, with a dedicated and specialist team of 10
colleagues, as well as a vast network of hardworking and dedicated volunteer County Safeguarding
Officers and Venue Welfare Officers across the country. We are continually looking to evolve and
improve our safeguarding work, so that we continue to be at the forefront of best practice in sport in
this vital area of work.
Capital Funding of Padel courts
The LTA has provided total net investment in excess of £6m in padel since 2020 when it became
recognised as the NGB.
Of this £6m, the LTA through its charitable arm, the LTA Tennis Foundation, has paid out £4.8m in
loans for the delivery of 80 padel courts at 42 venues, which equates to circa 15% of the total number
of courts in Britain today. These projects include a commitment to making padel accessible to the
local community.
Indeed, over the past two years, 70% of the LTA’s total loan funding has gone into padel with 30% into
tennis. This equates to £3.5m over two years, which has helped leverage a further £5.5m of third-
party investment.
The LTA’s resourcing of Padel
Padel is fully integrated into our business, with over 300 colleagues from across the LTA work on its
development. This includes those who work in areas such as competitions, operations, facility
development, communications, brand marketing, safeguarding and LTA colleagues in our national
delivery team helping to deliver projects locally.
We are keen to continue to engage at all levels with the padel community and only in the past few
weeks have we held a Padel Operator Forum to complement our regular one to one interaction with
this very important group, and an expert Padel Advisory Group will convene in the new year.
As part of this we remain open to speaking to anyone in the industry about the development of padel
and listening to all ideas and suggestions for the growth of the sport.
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