“If you give people the chance to watch the best players in the world, everything else just follows”. This simple idea from Luigi Carraro, President of the International Padel Federation (FIP), sums up the incredible rise of padel, a trend that shows no sign of slowing down. And part of that “everything else” is the massive growth of padel in Milan and Lombardy.
The formula is easy to understand: when a big event like the Milano Premier Padel—now in its third edition—happens, more people want to play. Fans call it the ‘Coello-Tapia Effect’. Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia, the best duo in the pro circuit and world No. 1 pair, are inspiring 1.5 million players across Italy, who play on nearly 10.000 courts. According to data from the FIP Research & Data Analysis Department, updated just before the Milano Premier Padel, three years ago there were 513 courts in Lombardy. By December of this year, that number has more than doubled to 1,320, with 75% of them being indoor courts, showing an impressive growth of 157%. In the province of Milan alone, there are 479 courts (+103% since 2021), 400 of which are indoors (84%). These numbers are even more striking when compared to the national average: while the number of courts across Italy grew by 110% in the last three years, Lombardy stands out with +157%. With figures above the already impressive national average, Lombardy is the second-largest region for padel in Italy, trailing only Lazio. However, when it comes to active players, Lombardy takes the top spot, with about 400,000 regular players—180,000 of them in Milan alone—playing one or more times a week. That’s more than a quarter of the total 1.5 million players across the country.
It’s not just about Milan. After the regional capital comes Brescia, with 198 courts and 66 facilities, followed by Bergamo (134 courts, 42 facilities). Next are Varese (121/36), Como (82/24), Pavia (72/36), Monza and Brianza (69/27), Mantova (54/22), Cremona (39/16), Lodi (35/12), Lecco (31/12), and Sondrio (6/4). Overall, padel is played in 270 towns across Lombardy, with the province of Milan leading (52 towns), followed by Brescia (45) and Bergamo and Varese (27 each).
On average, facilities in Lombardy have more courts than the national standard: 3.2 courts per club compared to the Italian average of 2.7. In Milan, the average is even higher at 4 courts per club.