The purpose of this master's thesis was to present the sport of padel in general and show an example of the inclusion of padel in Slovenia. The main features of this game are that it is always played in pairs and on a special court with higher glass fences. The purpose of these glass fences is to allow the ball to bounce into the fence and back into play when properly bounced off the ground. Since the padel is not yet present in Slovenia, the goal was to show an example of the inclusion of this new sports game in Slovenia. With SWOT analysis we wanted to examine the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities that accompany completely new sports on the Slovenian market. The goal was to simulate a business plan in form of a padel centre in a rental facility for a longer period. The objectives of the business plan were aimed at studying the target users, the indirect competition, the market objectives, the market strategy, and financial projections.
The methods of work were based on already established business plan models from the literature. Additional guidance to anticipate initial investments, revenues, expenditures, and organizational schemes was provided from examples of good practice abroad. We checked our results with a short survey questionnaire sent to padel centres around the world. We had to consider the fact that the padel is already experiencing exponential growth around the world, however it will be a completely new sport industry in Slovenia. Sales and profits were planned after anticipating the life cycle of new services according to Armstrong, Kotler and Opresnik (2019).
Based on the analysis, we concluded that the opportunity to establish a company is realistic. A business model simulation has shown that operating a padel centre is a superior business opportunity. Assuming 25% of court occupancy, the company expects positive net profit in the third year of operation. In the sixth year, with 55% of court occupancy, the company expects a return of the initial investment of € 403,000.
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