Cologne Sportspark: one court, and all the glass on four sides

This is one court, and saying so first is the honest way round: the Cologne Sportspark in Köln-Poll is a multi-sport venue that added padel, not a padel venue. What it added is a good one — an outdoor panorama court with glass on all four sides, which is the build the professional tour uses and which almost no single-court site bothers with.

The rest of the park is the reason to come: two indoor tennis courts on a joint-friendly velour surface, badminton, indoor football, beach volleyball, golf simulators, a restaurant with a large terrace and event space. No membership, free parking on site, and an opening offer of a block card at pay-for-ten-play-eleven. One quirk worth knowing: booking online costs €2 less per hour than booking by phone or at the desk, which is unusual enough to be worth doing deliberately.

One court is four players, and four is a size that finishes properly: a full Americano rotation at four players is three rounds, and an hour gives six at 21 points. You will run the whole rotation twice over and still have time for a decider.

Beyond four people this is not the venue to book for the group — the ladder below has one row, and a fifth person is a spectator. If your regular eight play here, book two consecutive hours and split into two fours, or take the group somewhere with more courts.

Book online rather than by phone. €2 an hour is small, but it is the whole difference between the two ways of doing exactly the same thing.