The Finns’ craze took off – A new trendy hobby hit the market

The popularity of the racket game padel exploded during the corona period, when new courts and halls sprang up at a rapid pace all over the country.

The bubble burst at least partially last year, and bankruptcies were not avoided. The high price of energy, the increase in general costs and the decrease in the number of visitors have become too expensive for many entrepreneurs in the industry.

An illustrative example is the Turku region, where padel courts and halls sprung up quickly and in large numbers.

Padel Park oy, the tenant of the padel hall located in Luolala, Naantali, was declared bankrupt last summer. The same happened to Turku-based Padel Turku oy, which ran courts in Raisio’s hall.

Padel Sports oy, the background company of Padel Club Finland, a major player in the field, experienced the same fate at Imatra, which filed for corporate reorganization in July. The company has 30 centers around Finland, 19 of which had to be closed.

– The Finnish padel market has developed rapidly in recent years, which has led to the fact that the number of courts has grown so that the supply now exceeds the demand in many places, the company wrote in its announcement.

A new trend

As the padel boom fades, the next entrepreneur is already entering the market. The new racket game pickleball is growing in popularity in Finland.

The sport has become a hit in the United States and has been said to be the fastest growing sport in the country. It is estimated that the sport already has more than 36 million players in the USA.

Pickleball arrived in Finland in 2014. The sport can already be played in more than 130 locations, and there are more places to play all the time.

Pickleball’s pioneering work is done in Finland Tuomo Antikainen. He believes that the sport will also conquer Finland.

According to Antikainen, there are several reasons. Above all, the low costs drive entrepreneurs to open new gaming venues for enthusiasts.

– The investments to start the sport with indoor entrepreneurs are minimal compared to the need to build a 30,000 euro metal cage, Antikainen says.

In pickleball, the boundaries of the field correspond to the size of the doubles field in badminton. So, the badminton court can easily be converted to pickleball by lowering the net.

– There are thousands of badminton courts ready in this country. There is no need to start a big construction project in order to get new places to play the sport, says Antikainen.

The hall in Naantali had six indoor and two outdoor courts for padel, which were dismantled and sold by the bankrupt. The parent company Naantalin Neliöt oy, which owns the hall property, started looking for a new tenant for the hall in June, but eventually ended up running the sports activities themselves.

The fresh hall entrepreneurs of Luolala in Naantali are also excited about the rise in popularity of the new sport. One pickleball court has been built in the Naantali hall, and there are also six badminton courts, which can be converted to suit the sport if necessary.

– We opened during the Christmas holidays and then you already noticed that the sport will be tried a lot, says the manager of Grippi Sport Center Vainö Santamäki.

After the holiday period ended, the gym entrepreneurs noticed that the number of experimental users of the sport decreased. However, pickleball has already found more regular enthusiasts.

– Now even a few standard shifts have been sold. Everyone who has visited has praised the sport as really exciting. There have been visitors from young people to seniors, says Santamäki.

Easy to start

According to Tuomo Antikainen, pickleball has a particularly low starting threshold compared to many racket games.

– It’s even easier to start if you don’t have a racket game background. In padel or tennis, it can take a very long time to get the game ready. In pickleball, it takes 20 minutes to bring the ball to life.

– It does hook a beginner quite well when you can catch up to the sport so quickly, he says.

Väinö Santamäki joins Antikai. In Naantali, a familiarization day for the sport was organized last week, when all badminton courts were converted to pickleball use.

– Everyone got a good grasp of the sport during the hour, Santamäki says.

Pickleball has already spread to schools, sports colleges and municipal sports services many years ago. According to Antikainen, rescue facilities around the country have also become enthusiastic about playing the sport.

– Note that interest in the sport is growing all the time, he says.

Finland was the fifth country in Europe where pickleball started. The sport has also grown rapidly in England and Sweden, among others.

– Sweden started several years later than Finland, but there is a huge interest in the sport there and it has grown quickly, says Antikainen.

In the United States, the annual income of the best players is over a million dollars. The most famous league is MLP, i.e. Major League Pickleball.

The teams fighting in the series are supported, among other things, by superstars who have taken part in the sport LeBron James, Tom Brady and Kim Clijsters. Among other things, an ex-tennis star plays in the league Jack Sock.

Antikainen’s dream is that pickleball will really become a sport for the whole nation, which “everyone” knows, like in the USA.