Mark Ayers, the Mod Father of major nationwide team padel events in the UK has been tapped by UK PADEL to lead a major expansion of UK PADEL Events.

Mark Ayers, Doctor of Philosophy, specialist in architecture light and lighting has not been brought into UK PADEL to start a boutique consultancy on how to get floodlit padel courts through planning permission, but rather his illuminating ideas on how to get more people involved in playing the game of padel.

Mark is one of the original padel people. When Padel landed in clubs in 2019 with LTA recognition, Mark became one of the most experienced padel club runners in the business, he was instrumental in the introduction of padel to Epsom Lawn Tennis Club and then delivered a programme of events and socials that delighted KT18. The first court was relatively straightforward as this was located on a piece of lawn outside the clubhouse. Padel membership was full within 7 weeks and so began the battle for court time and the start of the waiting list. The answer was simple, build more courts! The problem was where? After a long consultation period, to give members ample time for consideration, in 2021, the club membership voted 232 to 30 in favour of building two more padel courts on the club’s number 1 grass court! With a waiting list of over 400 for padel membership, two further padel courts are currently being constructed on the old groundsman’s bungalow site.

Think that through, 5 padel courts at a tennis club within 5 years!   Mark has always been thankful to have chaired a very forward-thinking committee at Epsom LTC and essentially a membership that listened to the proposals and weren’t afraid to embrace change.

Mark says “I still find it hard to believe the number of ways that the introduction of padel has benefitted the club, many of them tangential. The growth in membership was expected because we introduced a new sport with new padel membership categories as was the resulting increase in revenue. However, what was unexpected was the increase in tennis membership and associated revenue alongside this. Why is this? Mark muses “ I think that this is because padel has brought new life and energy to the club. The minute you walk through the entrance you are greeted by padel action, whoops of delight and laughter. Previously the journey was past a grass court that was for two thirds of the year empty. As a generalisation (but in my experience) padel-players also partake in a higher level of refreshment after play and therefore bar-revenue has also increased.” As a non-profit making organisation, the increased revenue is used to improve the facilities for all at the club – including a new pop-up irrigation system on the grass tennis courts and works have just begun on the refurbishment of the clubhouse facilities.

What’s behind this signing of Mark for UK PADEL?

Mark has been brought in to see the rapid expansion of padel events under the UK PADEL umbrella. This is good news for Padel operators who will make money from court hire and from food and beverage sales, for the governing body, and for the players and participants wanting more competition and experiences. The global padel market is set to rise from a figure of €1.775 billion at the end of 2023 to €4.015 billion in 2027.

With the growing number of courts in the UK comes the obvious growth in the sport’s participants and in turn the need for more competitions, coaching activity and padel events. Courts are springing up at traditional tennis clubs, sports clubs, new state-of-the-art indoor sheds and industrial buildings with more courts and great facilities, professional football clubs and schools and universities.

The padel event landscape in the UK needs to recognise regional, demographic and social aspects of this growth, embrace and deliver accordingly, providing platforms for existing players to develop and prosper and new players to be enticed into this wonderful sport.

The 2025 UK PADEL schedule encompasses the full spectrum of competitive opportunities for schools, universities, clubs, counties and corporates. Within the programme there will be events for the under 12s right up to the over 70s.

Neil Percival UK PADEL COO was first to pitch in.” Bringing Mark into run our events business was an easy decision. Once we had seen the traction of the County Championships for players and sponsors, we knew Mark was the best placed person in the industry to take it forward.  We have great brands onboard that have a lot to offer the participants such as for the upcoming County Championships with the likes of ACT Sports who are a wonderful Turf provider who are really just getting started on padel in the UK, Back in action who have the best ergonomic products in the business and Hexa Padel who are putting padel courts into every corner of the UK”

Mark Says “the county championships which begins this Saturday is once again going a step closer to what we all imagined, County tennis associations are paying the entry fees for some players, new teams are coming onboard and truly the excitement is building. I can’t tell you how good the team competition was last November when Sussex won the mixed, Yorkshire were women’s champions and East Scotland were the men’s champions. This really is a special format for counties to come together and the over 40, over 50 and over 60 events have proved it.”

What is the early sneak into the strategy and 2025 calendar

The first flagship event for 2025 will be the Universities Championships to be held at Rocket Bristol over the weekend of the 1st and 2nd of February. This will see the inaugural weekend event to find the strongest men’s, women’s and mixed student teams in the UK. Running alongside over the same weekend will be the University Alumni Championships where former students of a university can pull together a team in men’s, women’s or mixed and compete against other university alumni.

“Competitive padel has started in the UK for students now which is great to see and very welcome, and UK PADEL feel like we can accelerate this area quickly, and this ultimately means Padel spreads faster and further.”

UK PADEL CEO Nick Baker lays out the strategy. “Padel is fun, inclusive, easy to pick up, but it really is a great sport for competition – you can play multiple matches in a day/ afternoon and therefore you can get through what might take a week in tennis. These events are super social so they can be the perfect back drop for reunion style events or the kind of event that an association or padel group can base their calendar around. Going forward we will announce all our national flagship championships over 6 months in advance, so people can plan their diaries accordingly.”

The opportunity to create the major brushstrokes on what is essentially a blank canvas is mind-blowing. Sport should be, and padel definitely is, fun. With no historical baggage, conventions and decades of tradition to define what we ‘have to do’, the UK padel landscape is bright

2025 events

Mark Ayers defines the strategy:

Our approach to events will be multi-faceted to encompass all those that have fallen in love (or are yet to fall in love) with the sport in the UK (and beyond). Whilst compellingly competitive, sport should primarily be fun. The cornerstone of UK PADEL events is for them to be well-organised with a warm-welcome at great venues, whether our own or those of other operators.

• This starts at our grass-root venues at Holmer Green, South Bucks and our new SeaSpace venue in Newquay, Cornwall. Alongside weekly club events at these venues, we will be holding LTA-sanctioned tournaments (typically grade 3 or 4), as well as open days for community groups.
• UK PADEL are committed to promoting junior padel events and this will continue across our venues in 2025, with more junior LTA events as well as junior-specific flagship events mentioned later.
• The fantastic new UK PADEL facility in the grounds of new coastal aparthotel, SeaSpace in Newquay Cornwall offers an additional raft of opportunities, where padel can be combined with overnight accommodation, short breaks or longer stays. stay and play, stay and learn, or stay and compete. The latter can involve playing in a weekly informal tournament or competing in an LTA sanctioned event at the venue.

• We will host age specific senior events throughout the year and will extrapolate the “norm” by hosting over-70 events too.
• At SeaSpace Newquay, the two singles courts provide the opportunity to host singles tournaments. whilst singles is a new format in the UK, who knows what the future holds.
• UK PADEL will also continue with a number of major, high profile flagship events in 2025
• The UK PADEL County Championships ( a series of four events)
• The UK PADEL Universities Championships (and University Alumni Championships)
• The UK PADEL Schools Championships
• The UK PADEL Jarvis Cup (School Alumni, Open and O50 events)
• THE UK PADEL Corporate Championships