14 hours ago
London 2012 tennis courts ripped up for padel
Tennis courts built for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics are to be ripped up and replaced by padel courts in a move branded an 'absolute betrayal' of the Games' legacy.
Telegraph Sport can reveal that the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park's Lee Valley Hockey & Tennis Centre will spend almost £500,000 – part-funded by the taxpayer – converting its four indoor tennis courts this summer into seven double and two single padel courts.
The plans have emerged almost 13 years since the venue hosted the wheelchair tennis at the 2012 Paralympic Games, just over 11 since it opened to the public following a £30 million revamp, and days before the start of Wimbledon.
The change, which will force thousands of tennis players onto the site's six outdoor courts all year round or to find alternative indoor courts elsewhere, was given the go ahead last week by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA) with no public consultation.
A petition was launched on Tuesday by users of the centre calling for LVRPA, a public authority part-funded by a Council Tax levy, to 'reverse' its decision.
Among those to sign it was Olympic Park resident Sinjon Vedi, 48, who told Telegraph Sport the plans were an 'absolute betrayal' of the London 2012 legacy and Sir Andy Murray's 2013 Wimbledon triumph.
Vedi, who said he played at the venue 'four or five times a week' and that his daughter was also a regular there, added: 'This is a betrayal of everything that happened during the Olympics. Padel isn't an Olympic sport.
'To demolish some of the most beautiful courts that were built in honour of the Olympics, and as part of Andy Murray's legacy, all of that has been thrown away.'
He also said coaches who worked at the venue had been left 'heartbroken' and 'wondering what happens to them now', adding: 'Without the coaches, without the indoor courts, I do genuinely think I can see the tennis there completely disappearing.'
A proposal for two of the venue's outdoor courts to be converted for padel was rejected in February by the publicly funded LVRPA because of concerns over 'the balance of available capital against projected income'.
That was despite the plan having been approved by Greenwich Leisure Ltd, the charitable social enterprise that operates the venue under its 'Better' brand.
LVRPA chief executive Shaun Dawson also told Telegraph Sport a 'hybrid' option that would have seen some indoor tennis courts retained was similarly rejected because padel is a 'very loud' sport unsuitable to take place alongside tennis.
Denying the approved plans represented a betrayal of the London 2012 legacy, he said: 'Legacy doesn't stand still. Legacy has to evolve; otherwise it becomes a white elephant.'
Dawson said LVRPA was aiming to 'double the footfall, double the levels of participation' at the venue by introducing a sport he proclaimed to be 'far more inclusive' than tennis, adding: 'Outside of Wimbledon, there are tennis courts across the land that are empty.'
He was also confident the £490,347 cost, around 30 per cent of which he said would come from the taxpayer, would be recouped within a few years.
A report to the LVRPA's executive committee last week described padel as 'the fastest growing sport in the world with participation more than tripling in recent years' and stated the Lawn Tennis Association itself had committed to doubling the number of courts in the UK from 500 to 1,000.
It also said of tennis: 'Nationally the demand for tennis is declining – according to figures produced by APS (Active People Survey, Sport England), in 2008/9 there were one million people who played tennis monthly and 530,000 who played weekly. In 2024 the numbers had dropped to 694,000 and 384,000 respectively. Participation is down by nine per cent in the 16-25 age group, compared with a five per cent decline across all ages.'
The report acknowledged the conversion of the indoor tennis courts could have 'a negative impact on the venue's tennis coaches who deliver private tennis lessons'.
It added: 'However, there is an opportunity for the coaches to become qualified padel coaches and increase their income by working on the venue's padel course programme and providing their own private lessons.'
The report said there were two 'major' padel developments in nearby boroughs of Stratford and Ilford, 'which are showing rapid growth'. It added: 'The Stratford development is built on land earmarked for development and so will be displaced in 2026.'
