A company set up by the former LFC manager has secured planning permission
Padel FC was founded by Jurgen Klopp and his son Marc Klopp
Padel FC was founded by Jurgen Klopp and his son Marc Klopp(Image: Martin Rickett/PA Wire)
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A company backed by former Liverpool FC manager Jurgen Klopp is to redevelop a new sports centre in the city. After securing a 25-year lease for the redevelopment of land at Liverpool Tennis Centre in Wavertree, Padel FC - set up by Klopp and his son Marc - has won terms to develop the site.
Considered to be the fastest growing sport in the world, Padel is a racquet sport that combines elements of tennis and squash, typically played in doubles. It is experiencing something of a boom in the city, with venues popping up all over Liverpool.
The location comprises a complex of sporting facilities including Liverpool Lifestyle Gym & Aquatics Centre, Wavertree Athletics Centre, Wavertree Tennis Centre, and the Wavertree Playground. Liverpool Council are the freehold owners of the site.
Members of the city council’s planning committee signed off on proposals for nine new courts on the land with new planting and outdoor space. In 2025, Padel FC was named as the successful bidder for the site identified by the city’s leisure services department.
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The area comprises five outdoor courts, which are no longer used by the popular tennis centre, an overspill car park area and two grass verges. The proposed padel tennis facility will be constructed on the site of existing tennis courts which have fallen into disrepair and have not been in use for several years.
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Their proposals include the development of the site into six indoor and three outdoor padel courts alongside a café, retail space, changing rooms, and social areas. They intend to construct a dome shaped interlocking steel structure with plastic sheeting on top to cover the site.
The Padel FC Liverpool facility will open seven days a week and provide a year-round, all-weather sporting destination for players of all ages and abilities.
What the new Padel FC sports centre in Wavertree could look like
What the new Padel FC sports centre in Wavertree could look like(Image: Octo Architects)
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It is the latest in a series of padel courts popping up across the city.
In February, Peel unveiled plans for the UK’s first ever floating padel courts and club house to Liverpool Waters. Three padel courts also opened at Liverpool Cricket Club in November 2023.
The planning committee also signed off on an additional six courts off Longman Drive And Speke Boulevard.
The current site has remained largely undeveloped since 2012 and is occasionally used for overspill parking for the nearby Dobbies garden centre.
The courts would be sheltered beneath three parallel three-storey equivalent barrel-roofed steel structures. Parking will be developed for 150 spaces on site.