The new era of padel — how long can the WPT stick around?

Earlier this year, we saw Premier Padel World Tour in Doha, Qatar. At the same time, a new global era for padel started. This series will be the best, most prestigious and most glamorous padel event the world has seen.

The question now is: How long can the World Padel Tour stick around?

Will we see the World Padel Tour all year? Will it be canceled after the Alicante Open? What about the fines against the players? 

There are many questions to ask the World Padel Tour management. But unfortunately, the answers are not there. Being a journalist must be impossible since you can't get access to the right people. 

"WPT's last lifeline - Women"

Therefore you have to get creative, you have to get to the players and people who are involved in padel to figure it out.

The players are not afraid of having to pay the fine imposed by the World Padel Tour on the contracted players, totaling €25 million. And, there are now many speculations and rumors that the Alicante Open could be the last tournament we see from the World Padel Tour. 

Do we believe this? Could this happen? 

The short answer is no. It doesn't really work that simply. The act of shutting down a leading padel tournament league that's been around for 10 years is not an easy task, there is tons of paperwork and a lot of written agreements and, naturally, hefty fines that come with it if this would happen. 

However, the WPT is gripping on to one lifeline, the female players. The women's representative body IPPA (women's player's association), have not managed to come to an agreement with the Premier Padel team to play on their new tour. 

 

"Tournaments in Cordoba, Reus, and Vigo will be replaced by New York, Doha, and Paris."

The World Padel Tour has done a lot of good for the sport since 2012, but now it's being defeated by bigger players who want to take the sport global on a massive scale. 

I'm no different to you, I love tournaments in smaller towns. They help educate the public on new places to visit, it drives the local economy and it supports local businesses too, but there is no stopping the commercial mindset that's out to present padel in cities like New York, Paris or even Doha. 

I truly believe this is what the new era of padel will look like with Premier Padel. We will see a sport with a massive increase in investment, commercialisation, professionalism and most importantly, internationalisation. 

"Seeing something I'm so passionate about be taken to the next level”

You might be asking yourself, why is the London Padel Co. so interested in the Padel industry and not just selling stuff? I'll tell you, there's a lot to it. 

I started playing padel when it was a niche sport, as I was brought up in Spain I figured I'd make the switch from Tennis over to padel. There was a few hundred players worldwide and there wasn't really a World Padel Tour as we know it now. 

So for me, to see this sport experience this sort of growth, is something that brings me great joy, seeing something I'm so passionate about be taken to the next level in terms of everything, the way we play it, the equipment, the venues etc. 

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