Turnkey padel center: economics and engineering model

Context

A padel center is a capital project disguised as a sports booking business: the return depends on court count, utilization, tariffs, build cost and the physical constraints of the hall — ceiling height, heating, ventilation, FIP compliance. Errors in that model get poured into concrete; they cannot be patched after launch.

This case is the methodology the studio accumulated across real club projects: a worked economic and engineering model that answers whether, where and in what configuration a padel center pays back — before the first contractor is hired.

The economic model

Two reference configurations — 4 and 10 courts — are carried end to end through the model's economic variables: utilization, tariffs, CAPEX, OPEX and payback. The two builds bracket the realistic range of the market: a compact club fitted into an existing hall versus a destination facility, each with its own cost structure, staffing profile and revenue ceiling.

Revenue is modeled from slot economics upward — occupancy by daypart, tariff grid, group and tournament formats — rather than from a top-line assumption, so every change in the physical spec propagates into the payback figure.

The engineering spec

The physical model is held to FIP: a 20×10 m playing field per court, 10–12 mm glass, walls up to 4 m — plus the hall geometry, heating and ventilation required for year-round play. These are the constraints that disqualify most candidate buildings before any lease is signed.

For outdoor builds the model goes below the surface. The concrete base is specified at contractor grade: a monolithic slab of 150–180 mm in B25 concrete with F150 frost and W6 water-resistance grades, Ø8–10 A500C reinforcement, a 0.7–1.0% drainage slope and flatness within 3 mm per 3 m, over a non-heaving sub-base with drainage sized for frost depth. Cable channels to the court cameras are designed into the slab brief, so the digital layer is provisioned at the foundation stage.

Supply and fit-out

Sourcing is modeled through two channels — direct China supply and in-house manufacturing — compared per line item of the court kit. For covered courts, three canopy types (fixed, sliding, retractable) were specified in S235–S355 steel with PVDF membrane against a shortlist of Chinese fabricators, with a request-for-quotation template ready to send. Snow load is treated as the governing risk of the roof calculation for northern climates, and is flagged as such in the model rather than averaged away.

Digital layer and outcome

The operating business is priced into the model, not just the build: CRM, the court-video system and club analytics from the studio's adjacent padel engagements enter the OPEX and revenue lines, so digitization is a budgeted capability rather than an afterthought.

The result is a reusable, exercised methodology — site audit, financial model, facility design, court supply, digitization, launch — already applied on real club projects and packageable as a feasibility service for the next operator.

What we built

• Financial model

  4- and 10-court configurations through utilization, tariffs, CAPEX/OPEX and payback, built from slot economics upward.

• Facility spec

  Hall dimensions, heating, ventilation and FIP requirements: 20×10 m courts, 10–12 mm glass, walls up to 4 m.

• Slab & foundation brief

  Monolithic slab 150–180 mm, B25 / F150 / W6, Ø8–10 A500C, flatness ≤ 3 mm per 3 m, non-heaving sub-base and drainage — a contractor-grade technical brief.

• Supply & fit-out

  Court supply via direct China sourcing and in-house manufacturing; three canopy types specified with an RFQ-ready fabricator shortlist.

• Digital layer

  CRM, the court-video system and club analytics folded into the operating model and provisioned at the foundation stage.