Padelsphere in Blyth celebrates ‘incredible’ first month of operation

Padel is the fastest-growing sport in the world but, until last month, Northumberland didn’t have its own dedicated centre for the sport.

However, that all changed when Padelsphere opened in Blyth in the building of the former Bounce soft play centre.

Whilst there are other padel courts in Northumberland, Padelsphere offered customers much more than access to the sport and, according to founder and CEO Akshay Ohari, had the community at the heart of their venture.

“It's been an incredible start to Padelsphere. We've had such a great response from people walking in, whether that's players, people who are just coming in for a drink to watch their football, or even families, especially across the weekends, spending the whole day here just having drinks, watching the kids play and stuff like that.

“We really did try to create Padelsphere to be a lot more of a community vibe rather than just play padel and go home.

“We've also got saunas, we've been told that our changing rooms and bathrooms are more like a spa than a sports venue. So that's really nice to hear.

“It is a little bit different to the ones that you typically see in the North East. So we have tried to make it a lot more premium and nice for everyone.”

At Padelsphere, you can play as a group, join games already set-up as an individual or join their social mix in events to meet new people and experience the sport. There’s no requirement to have played the sport before or even to have any equipment with everything being available to rent at the venue.

For experienced padel players, though, new members leagues are beginning in the very near future, with cash prizes available for the winners.

There is also a corporate aspect to the venture, with companies being given the chance to sponsor courts as well as get involved with AI cameras that capture doubles games and send out highlights to players.

“Everybody's more than welcome to come and try and play for the first time because it's such an addictive sport, especially if you've played it,” Ohari continued.

“Sixty or seventy percent of the people are beginners and they're all already coming back because after one session they'd be like, ‘oh, wow, I didn't realise it was actually this fun.’

“It has been really positive in terms of people from Blyth, Cramlington, Ashington and more of the surrounding towns have all been coming in and the response has been really good.

“But then, like I said, it's not just that they are coming for padel.

“Because of the way we've made it, people are literally just come in for an evening to watch the football, families are coming in for coffees.

“So it's been really nice.”

For updates from Padelsphere on future events and how to book a court, follow them on Instagram.