The post-pandemic sports boom does not stop. though there is disciplines such as paddle tennis that have marked an explosive demand for places to practice the fashionable sport the other hobbies experienced a year 2022, more than recovered, of intense activity.

In the case of sports practiced with shovel, the boom for some had already come since 2018, and others place it after the first quarantines that occurred due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, there is one thing that no one disputes: there are more and more people who want to join the paddle tennis trend.

And the reasons are obvious. More and more clubs, even higher education establishments, are making courts available and are increasing the offer for rowers. A clear example of this is what has been done by the University of San Sebastian (USS) which has erected in its Sports City the largest paddle tennis center in the country, with 15 courts.

As he commented to Impulse the dean of the said house of studies, Javier Valenzuela, In 2022, they put in place an investment plan that mobilized 900 million dollars, money that was also used to improve the level of practice of other sports, such as swimming, tennis and soccer. And for next year, they will continue to invest.

“In 2023, the Cité des sports will invest an amount of nearly 500 million dollars continue our program of implementation and modernization of infrastructure and equipment,” explains Valenzuela.

And it is that the demand to practice sports is on the rise. “The USS Sports City opens at 6 a.m. and closes at 11 p.m. and throughout the day there is a high demand for its facilities. We serve an average of 1,500 to 2,000 people per day”, explains the dean of the house of studies.

The point of developing paddle tennis courts, say some business connoisseurs, is that a single court can generate sales of $3.5 million per month. Although this figure varies depending on its geographical location, both inside Santiago and outside the capital.

The figures of easycourt , a technological platform that brings together more than 500 sports clubs in seven countries of the region, endorses the great interest in increasing the practice of different disciplines. Only in Chile they record a 59.2% increase in the number of clubs , reaching 605,000 users in the country. This means that, compared to the figures of a year ago, they recorded a 61.7% growth in the number of people doing sports.

This is also reflected in the reserve figures. If in 2021, 2.1 million reservations were made via the application, in 2022 the number rose to 3.4 million, an increase of 60%.

Although the platform points out that the availability of sports is on average 35 disciplines, the most relevant of which are paddle tennis, tennis, golf and football.

The explosive increase in demand for the practice of sports such as paddle tennis has led to the fact that the players who introduced this discipline seven years ago are seeing their income decrease, affected by increased competition.

This is the case of the center Paddle East , located near Club Palestino, in the municipality of Las Condes. The enclosure has 4 courts, and since the beginning of the fashionable sports boom, in the sector three other clubs have been installed : Red Padel, Alto Padel and Padel Estoril.

“Competition in the sector has had an impact on the reduction of pitch reservations, but it all ultimately depends on how often customers become familiar with the club,” explains its administrator, Andrea Ramos.

Although he acknowledges that over the past seven years paddle tennis has been “a sport that has caught the eye”, increased competition has put pressure on margins.

One of its competitors admits that the the first year was difficult , with greater demand concentrated in months without rain. However, certain “surprise” expenses, such as the breaking of the glass panels or the netting, made them “spend the whole year” so that the investment, which reached up to 25 million dollars per field, n has not yet been recovered.

With all, “A good month can earn you up to $4 million per location” recognize actors who prefer not to reveal their identity.

A similar competition is observed in the serene . In the so-called Pueblito Peñuelas, since February 2021 – less than a year ago – the Club Arena Padel . Your landlord, Mauricio Monardez proudly recounts that at the time of their installation they were the tenth sports center dedicated exclusively to fashionable sports in the region, and today there are already 22 of them.

“We had forecast a very strong demand, concentrated in the afternoons, as indicated by the studies we had done. But Despite the fact that the supply has doubled in a year, the demand has not dropped at all. What we estimated was completed to the letter, or even a little more », confidential.

With its four courts, it averages an occupancy of 14 to 15 teams, i.e. daily bookings. Although they are more concentrated in the block after hours, he also clarifies that in some cases there are people who exercise the telecommuting alongside sports practice .

“In our club, they go in the morning and settle down with their computers, it was a turnaround because in the end it’s not only sport, but also a space where people can go and share with family, work if they want, and these are differentiations that we have generated due to the strong competition that paddle tennis itself has “, Explain.

Monardez also points out that the monthly sales in his case average $2 million per field , since reserve prices are lower than those in the capital. “Raising prices is still not a good way to earn more, because there are so many clubs, those who have raised their prices have had to lower them and adapt to what the majority have”, comments- he.

And despite the fact that, in his case, he cannot grow any further due to a space problem, Monardez says that since they operated in Pueblito Peñuelas less than a year ago, they were practically alone “and Now we have about four soccer fields, two pickleball courts, one with indoor volleyball, a gymnasium , and even a sports rehabilitation center; The sport has grown a lot.”

Its strategy for 2023 will focus on bringing more products and offers to its store, where they sell supplies such as Pallas, since “the target audience exists, continues to exist and there is a market that has opened up a lot; there are a lot of entrepreneurs who bring shovels, shoes and they import everything”.

Monardez points out that investments in this activity are recovered in just over a year and a half , since the installation of a court currently costs between 16 and 20 million dollars, and this varies according to the contractor. “Before, they were imported courts, and today, there are suppliers who manufacture them. This makes it possible to have a more affordable value”, he comments, adding that “having the capital is still a very good business because paddle tennis itself does not require too much maintenance or staff, the fixed costs are staff and rent”.

A similar situation is reported in mass tennis , the sports center linked to the double Olympic champion of 2004, Nicoláas Massú. His business manager and younger brother of the current Davis Cup captain, Stefano Massu summarizes it as follows: “This boom has caused users no longer play when they want, but when there are available times ”.

For Stefano, although 2022 is described as “the first year of normal operation since the start of the pandemic”, he recognizes that for the last year his investment “has been more conservative than in previous periods” but by 2023 ” we hope to double”.

Stefano details that after the reopening which meant the end of the quarantines, “the demand for spaces to practice sport has been strongly reactivated”, and in his case “we have seen an increase in tennis as it is a discipline that can be developed more safely due to capacity issues and it happens outside.

The younger brother of the double Olympic champion expects that by 2023, despite the fact that the projected recession for the economy means that “the situation in the country is complicated for everyone “, a scenario that generates some uncertainty during the projections, to Massú Teni “even so, and given the reactivation, especially of tennis, we believe that interest in exercise will continue to increase because, after being in quarantine for long periods, people have favored the practice of sport for their physical and mental health.