Opening a padel club: what people forget to budget for

Why the quoted budgets vary tenfold

Search "how much does a padel club cost" and you'll land on two irreconcilable orders of magnitude. Propulse by CA (French, Crédit Agricole) quotes an average budget of €150,000. Padel Magazine (French) puts a four-court indoor club between €900,000 and €1.8 million.

Both are correct. The first describes an outdoor project with two or three courts on rented land, with no building to construct. The second includes the hall, and that's almost entirely what accounts for the gap: at €400 to €800 per square meter for 1,200 to 1,500 m², the building far exceeds the cost of the courts themselves.

First takeaway, then: the question isn't "how much does a club cost," but "am I building, and am I covering it." Everything else follows from that.

The courts line item: the builder's quote isn't the cost of the ground

Padel Magazine puts a standard outdoor court between €20,000 and €30,000 before tax, an indoor court between €25,000 and €35,000, and a premium panoramic court between €35,000 and €45,000. These figures generally include the structure, glazing, turf and LED lighting — but not always transport, assembly, or groundwork.

Yet Propulse figures groundwork and the slab at €25,000 to €35,000 per court, roughly as much as the court itself. This is the first line item people forget: the builder's quote you receive can represent only half the real bill.

Always ask for a quote that's "installed and playable," including transport, assembly, and ground preparation. A €25,000 gap per court across four courts is an entire changing-room budget.

The building, the land, and ceiling height

Indoors, plan for 1,200 to 1,500 m² for four courts, with 7 to 8 meters of clear height — a constraint that immediately rules out many existing buildings. At €400 to €800 per m², construction runs €600,000 to €1,200,000.

Renting, a suitable industrial space goes for €60 to €120 per m² per year: for 1,500 m², that's an annual rent of €90,000 to €180,000, to be covered from month one, before your first player.

The land itself ranges from €30 to over €200 per m² in peri-urban areas depending on the region. In other words, two identical projects can end up with budgets twice apart depending on where you plant your courts.

The line items almost always forgotten

Turf gets replaced

This is the model's invisible cost: synthetic turf is changed every five to eight years, for €6,000 to €10,000 per court according to Propulse. Across four courts, plan for an annual provision rather than a bad surprise in year six.

Acoustics

Padel Magazine flags this as a major point of vigilance, especially in urban areas where noise disputes are becoming increasingly frequent. Acoustic treatment gets budgeted at the design stage; it costs far more once the neighbors are in administrative court.

Insurance and regulatory obligations

A club is a public-facing venue (in France, an "établissement recevant du public"): it needs an opening permit and must meet health, safety and accessibility standards. It's also a physical-activity venue, which implies verified good-character conditions for operators. Professional liability insurance is mandatory; property insurance and business-interruption cover aren't, but a landlord will often require them, and a three-month closure without cover rarely ends well.

Also worth noting: to teach padel for pay in France, you — or your instructors — must hold the professional qualification issued by the FFT (French Tennis Federation). That's not a budget line, it's a training timeline.

First-months cash flow

The item most often missing from business plans. Rent or loan payments and salaries start running from opening day, while occupancy takes months to build up. Your initial budget needs to cover these costs until revenue catches up — otherwise a club that's profitable on paper dies of a cash crunch.

Ancillary costs

Architect fees, soil surveys, building permits, utility connections, furniture, IT, booking software, launch communications: Padel Magazine estimates these at 5 to 15% of the overall budget. On a million-euro project, that's €50,000 to €150,000 — rarely provisioned at that level from the start.

On the other side: what the club collects

The average hourly rate for a court sits between €24 and €40 according to Padel Magazine, with an average of around €30 outside major cities per Propulse, and quiet weekday slots often discounted to around €20, between 9am-noon and 2pm-5pm.

With an occupancy rate of 40 to 60%, a well-located four-court club can target annual revenue of €400,000 to €900,000. Profitability would arrive in three to six years for a substantial indoor project, and rather two to three years for a modest two-to-three-court investment.

These ranges share one thing in common: they rest entirely on occupancy rate. Ten points of occupancy more or less, and the repayment plan changes by years.

Ancillary revenue

The bar or snack stand often accounts for 10 to 30% of a club's revenue. Lessons, camps, tournaments, a pro shop and possible partnerships add to that. All of these require a clubhouse space designed in from the plan stage, and for food service, a trade that isn't yours — often better handed to a partner or associate.

Independent or franchised

A franchise brings brand recognition, support and a proven model, which often eases access to financing. It has a price: an entry fee, a minimum contribution, and royalties on revenue. Propulse cites entry fees of €15,000 at UrbanPadel, €25,000 to €35,000 at PadelShot, and €30,000 to €50,000 at 4Padel (all French franchise brands).

The calculation to make isn't "how much is the entry fee" but "what does the royalty represent over ten years, compared to what the brand brings in occupancy." The same question as for your tools, at a larger scale.

Grants and support not to overlook

The FFT (French Tennis Federation) offers equipment support schemes: a grant of up to 20% of the initial budget, or a zero-interest loan over ten years, to request from your regional league's development advisor. On top of that come general business-creation schemes, like a partial exemption from social contributions in the first year. A bank loan generally requires a contribution of at least 30%.

And where does the software fit in

Might as well say it upfront: we publish a booking tool, so we're not neutral on this point. Here's the honest order of magnitude anyway.

On an opening budget of several hundred thousand euros, booking software is a tiny line — a few dozen euros a month. That's not where your financing plan gets decided.

What it decides, though, is what that line becomes once the club is running. A tool billed on commission takes a percentage of every booking: at 15% on €500,000 of annual revenue, that's €75,000 a year — the equivalent of two courts installed, every single year. A per-court subscription, by contrast, stays at a few hundred euros a year, whatever your occupancy.

It's the only piece of advice we'll allow ourselves here: put this line in your five-year plan, not just in your opening budget. Our guide to choosing booking software covers the questions to ask.

What to take away

Padel remains a growing market, but the phase of rapid expansion is giving way to a selection of the best-structured projects. Three things make the difference: location, a business model that holds up, and serious management.

And a business plan that includes groundwork, turf replacement, acoustics, insurance, and six months of cash reserve. It's these five line items, more than the price of the courts, that separate a club that opens from a club that lasts.