Padel is Britain's fastest-growing sport - and it is still early.
The job is not to create demand. It is to capture nearby, growing demand into our courts - before rivals do. A market this fast shifts the contest from "is there demand?" to "who captures the repeat player?" They convert locally, at a venue that feels like home.
Not a court provider. A hub.
One roof, everything - the thing single-site rivals cannot match. Five indoor courts open late, wrapped in the reasons to stay.
5 indoor courts
All-weather, open till 23:00. Mon-Fri 08:00-23:00 · Sat 08:00-22:00 · Sun 09:00-22:00.
Bar
A members' space - and a content set, not just a revenue line.
Gym & fitness
A cross-sell hook and a daytime draw most rivals lack.
Retail shop
Grips, balls, apparel - attach revenue on every visit.
Expert coaching
A watchable, named coach who sells lessons by being good.
Events & leagues
Americano, Mexicano, Circulo, Mix-In - the recurring cast.
Memberships
The flywheel. The engine, not the upsell.
Book via Playtomic ("PADELHUB SO16 Southampton") and at padelhub.uk. Backed by the 8-site PADELHUB UK chain: Crawley · Epsom · Fleet · North London · Reading · Slough · Southampton · Tunbridge Wells - shared brand, content pool and away-days.
Around 500k people within 30 minutes. We just need our share.
Roughly 500,000+ residents and around 200,000 aged 21-50 - padel's core - within a 30-minute drive of SO16. An affluent ring (Chandler's Ford, Winchester, Eastleigh's professional base, Romsey) that can absorb a premium club, plus a corporate park on the doorstep at Adanac.
The prize lives Mon-Fri, 08:00-16:30. Peak fills itself. Growth - and the defence against Chandler's Ford - comes from the daytime segments below.
Women + Pilates
Weekday mornings
The biggest single off-peak win - only around 30% of players are women.
Students & colleges
Weekday midday / afternoon
Recurring blocks, low-cost, high-volume.
Corporate & freelancers
Lunch + late morning
The Adanac business-park catchment, right on the doorstep.
Seniors / parents / juniors
Mid-morning + after-school
Habitual, loyal, community-building.
Social players & members
Shoulder eves + weekends
The flywheel's recurring cast.
Our courts sit around 40% full. Blended occupancy is an average that lies.
Peak is near-full. Off-peak daytime (around 20-40%) is the prize. You do not fix 40% by adding more peak - you fix it by filling Mon-Fri daytime. Programme the dead hours; do not discount them to death.
That is the whole target. Around 90% of it must come from Mon-Fri daytime, because peak has little headroom left. At roughly £40-60 per hour that is approximately £5k-£7k+ extra revenue per week - before bar, coaching and retail.
The portfolio of plays - each tied to a daypart it fills
Ladies' Morning Circulo + Pilates
Weekday mornings
Daytime + Friday / Sunday socials
Shoulder eves + weekends
Student taster + recurring block
Midday / afternoon
Corporate lunchtime league
Lunch
After-school juniors · college curriculum
Daytime / term-time
Off-peak pricing + peak cap
Smooths demand (Playtomic)
The principle: a booked court at a women's-morning rate still beats an empty court at the rack rate - but the goal is recurring, habitual off-peak demand, so the slots fill themselves week after week. Benchmark: independent booking-data estimates (Playskan) put sister-site PADELHUB North London at around 56% occupancy and £77 per court-hour - top-1% in the UK for revenue per court.
The window closes in September.
PadelStars opens a 6-court indoor venue at Chandler's Ford around September 2026 - cafe, bar and retail, directly in our catchment. Every regular, member and habit we build before September is defended occupancy, won in exactly the segments a new opener is weakest on at launch.
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Now · mid-2026
Window is OPEN
Their site is still under development. We build defended off-peak habit now.
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Summer 2026
Their fit-out + pre-launch
We lock in members and recurring daytime fixtures while they are still building.
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~Sept 2026
6-court indoor venue opens
Cafe, bar and retail land in our catchment. New, but starting from zero habit.
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Autumn 2026+
Female-participation push scales
Women, students and daytime become contested. Defended occupancy beats won-back occupancy every time.
Coaching and membership are the compounding lines.
Coaching is the highest-margin court hour in the building and fronted by a coach rivals cannot copy. Membership turns one-off bookers into recurring revenue - and recurring content cast - and is the deepest defence against Chandler's Ford.
José Fornieles - our coach
One person, three jobs in one: a revenue engine (premium 1-to-1, squads, masterclasses, video analysis at the top price points), an occupancy lever (every programme engineered to fill a named off-peak daypart), and a marketing flywheel (the reel that fills his diary is the same reel that fills membership).
The perk stack is the pitch
Reduced court fees, discounted coaching, event early-access, bar, gym and shop discounts, social events. The sell is not a discount - it is "members pay less and play more."
- A member with a fixed weekly slot does not shop around when a rival opens 7 miles away.
- Members book more, spend more, train in the gym and bring mates.
- Members become the content - the recurring, low-cost cast.
Targets framed honestly - measured by daypart, not vanity.
"40% to 80%", said precisely: 80% is the peak and long-term stretch. The 12-month north star is around 65% blended, won by lifting weekday off-peak from roughly 20-40% to 55-65%. We track occupancy by daypart and RevPAH.
The KPI targets
| Metric | Baseline | 90-day | 365-day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blended occupancy | ~40%* | 52% | ~65% |
| Off-peak occupancy | ~20-40% | +15pt | 55-65% |
| Peak occupancy | - | 78% | 80-85% |
| RevPAH | TBD | +18% | toward £33.60 |
| New memberships / month | - | 25 | 35 |
* Illustrative until real Playtomic data is pulled. Benchmark (independent Playskan estimates): PADELHUB North London around 56% occupancy, £77 per court-hour, top-1% UK revenue per court. All forward numbers are illustrative pending the Playtomic baseline.
The revenue bridge - today to run-rate
How the monthly run-rate climbs from an assumed ~£50k baseline to ~£92k. The lift sits entirely in hours that currently earn nothing - and those filled hours drag coaching, bar and retail spend with them.
A clear window, a costed plan, and the asks to act on it.
Back the plan that turns a 40%-full venue into the catchment leader before the competition opens. All forward numbers are illustrative pending the Playtomic baseline.
- 1
Pull the real Playtomic baseline
Occupancy by daypart - so we steer by data, not the illustrative 40%.
- 2
Green-light the off-peak anchors
Ladies' mornings, daytime socials, off-peak pricing - for Weeks 1-2.
- 3
Lock José's weekly filming slot + the Anna Sharpe collab
The two highest-ROI content moves.
- 4
Approve the gear + a modest Google Ads / paid-boost budget
The content engine and the high-intent local search catch.
- 5
Commit to the membership push timed before September
The deepest defence against Chandler's Ford.
Fill the daytime, build the habit, sell the membership - before Chandler's Ford opens.
That is the whole plan.