3 Reasons Why A Steel Building Is Best For Padel Courts

If you haven’t heard of padel, firstly, where have you been? It’s the racket sport that’s taking the UK by storm (no, seriously). It’s one of the fastest growing sports in Great Britain and earlier this year the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) announced that there were now 1,000 padel courts around the country.

That might not sound like very many, and it’s true that there is definitely demand for more, but given that there were just 68 padel courts in 2019, it’s a pretty significant increase. 

As padel continues to grow in popularity, the LTA is pushing for more courts, particularly those that are covered, to be added to our sporting venues – and that’s where affordable steel buildings can come in. 

Here are three reasons why we believe steel frame buildings are the ideal choice for padel courts. 

1. They’re affordable

Building and maintaining sporting facilities isn’t cheap – but it also doesn’t need to be prohibitively expensive. This is particularly true if you choose a steel canopy design that is not only easy to install, but also cost-effective. 

This kind of structure provides shelter from heavy downpours – and let’s be honest, we have to plan for those in the UK – while staying open to the fresh air on the sides. This minimises the materials required and means that in the summer months you can take advantage of the natural light. 

2. They’re versatile

You’ll also have the option of having a fully open canopy – a structure with a roof only – and a partially enclosed canopy, where the steel shelter extends a few metres below the roof on either side, while leaving the bottom of the structure open. 

These kinds of canopies are ideal if you already have outdoor padel courts at your facility, but want to make them usable for more of the year. 

Then there are fully enclosed canopies that are essentially steel buildings. The courts in these buildings are completely protected from the weather and totally secure. If your sports facility is in a more exposed location – particularly one that can experience strong winds – a fully enclosed canopy is likely to be the way to go. 

This also means you can choose the canopy to suit any padel courts you already have in place. For instance, if you already have glass and mesh-walled padel courts, you may decide you only need a canopy roof, whereas if you’re building a set of padel courts from scratch you may decide a fully enclosed canopy is helpful. 

3. They’re customisable

This is one of our favourite parts of building padel courts – customising them to suit your needs and branding. We can not only supply padel court canopies or full steel buildings that are customised to the dimensions of your space, but can also provide building components in colours of your choice. 

Size-wise, our canopies can have an eaves height of up to 12m and can span over 50m, which means you can create a facility that suits your needs. 

Whether you’re a long-time padel fan or are new to the sport though, we know you’ll appreciate having access to more padel courts so you can continue to play and help introduce even more people to this fun and accessible sport.