The pitch at De Herdgang that became history
The Court That Disappeared
A padel court seems permanent once the glass is in place and the artificial turf has been laid. Yet the Dutch padel map is less fixed than it appears. Courts are restricted, relocated or no longer used at all. Plans disappear before a single post goes into the ground. A facility may be ready and still remain closed for months because its use does not comply with legal requirements. And sometimes a conflict is resolved with a wall, adjusted opening hours or a new location.
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The Court That Disappeared looks at the other side of growth. Not records and openings, but what happens when sport, space, noise, money and local residents come into conflict.
We do not automatically take the side of the player, club or neighbor. Every case has its own facts. A noise standard is not the same as experienced nuisance. A permit is not the same as community support. And a plan that was once abandoned may return years later in a different location.
That is why the Padelgids database includes more than just ‘available’ and ‘expected’. There are also statuses such as no longer in use, plans abandoned, temporary, research phase and permit application. Behind these labels are stories. In this series, we take eight of them off the map and explain what really happened.
A Court Before the Netherlands Knew What Padel Was
The history of padel in the Netherlands does not begin neatly with a single ribbon-cutting ceremony and one official opening date. Vijfhuizen is regarded as the place where the first official public padel court opened in 2006, but at PSV training complex De Herdgang, a much more informal experiment emerged during the same pioneering period.
Guus Hiddink had discovered the sport in Spain. At De Herdgang, a court was built that did not meet all official dimensions and requirements. At the time, that was hardly the point. It was about playing. South American footballers and others around PSV could play a game that almost nobody in the Netherlands knew.
That is precisely what makes the court historically interesting. Not because the Dutch competition started here, but because it shows how a sport sometimes arrives: not through policy or a business case, but because someone brings something back from abroad.
The Function Disappeared Before the Court Did
Padelgids records that the court still exists, but is no longer used. This is therefore not a classic closure story. There was no major conflict, no bankruptcy and no court ruling that switched off the lights.
The environment changed. Padel professionalized at remarkable speed. Modern courts acquired standardized dimensions, glass walls, certified surfaces and lighting. What was once a fun improvisation was overtaken by a sport that increasingly demanded higher standards.
This happens with pioneering locations more often. They are important because they were early, not because they remain functional forever.
From Curiosity to Heritage
The Netherlands now has thousands of courts. That gives an unused early court a different meaning. It is not a missing piece of capacity; it is sporting heritage.
In many sports, places like these disappear without a trace. A floor is replaced, a facility gets a new purpose, and years later nobody remembers where the first training sessions took place. For padel, it is still possible to document this history because the pioneering period is barely twenty years behind us.
A photograph, exact location and memories from players could therefore be at least as valuable as making the court playable again.
What a Disappeared Court Teaches Us
De Herdgang shows that ‘disappeared’ can have several meanings. A court can be physically demolished, but it can also lose its function. On the map, that is an important distinction.
For Padelgids, it is therefore interesting not to simply remove locations that are no longer in use. Anyone who preserves only currently bookable courts loses the historical trail of the sport.
The status ‘no longer in use’ can therefore become one of the richest categories in the database.
A Call to the First Players
Who actually played on that early court? Which PSV players were there? What did the construction look like in its first years? Which stories have become more polished over time than they really were?
These are questions that cannot all be answered by a database. For this, we need photo albums, former employees and players.
Padelgids would like to preserve these memories. Anyone with their own photographs or a verifiable memory of the early padel court at De Herdgang can contact the editorial team at redactie@padelgids.nl. This is precisely the time to document it, before a pioneering location exists only as a footnote in a timeline.
Why This Old Court Is Becoming More Important Now
Twenty years after the first Dutch experiments, it is tempting to look only ahead. New facilities are larger, lighting is better and the number of players is incomparable to the pioneering years. Yet that is precisely why a place like De Herdgang is becoming more valuable. Modern padel courts can be photographed anywhere; a tangible trace from the period when hardly anyone in the Netherlands knew the game is rare.
For the editorial team, there is also a great opportunity here to preserve history through more than just text. A regular feature with old and new photographs, maps and memories could show how quickly the sport changed technically. How high were the walls? What surface was used? Which rackets did people play with? Even details that seemed unimportant at the time become historical information later.
The same applies to other early locations. When a club replaces an old court, it is worth documenting what was there first. A database does not have to be just a booking guide. It can also become an archive.
De Herdgang also makes clear why words such as ‘first’ should be used carefully. The first official public court, the first informal court and the first club with multiple courts may all point to different locations. Making those distinctions explicit actually strengthens the history rather than making it more complicated.
For readers, that may be the most fascinating thing about this disappeared court: it dates from a time when nobody was thinking about a national ranking, FIP points or packed indoor facilities. People played because someone knew the game and others were curious. That simple beginning is difficult to recreate. Precisely for that reason, it deserves a place in the collective memory of the sport.
There is one more reason to document this place: the generation that experienced the beginning firsthand is still reachable. In ten or twenty years, reconstruction will depend more heavily on second-hand stories. A short oral history with Hiddink, former players, staff and builders would therefore be a logical next step. Not to make a myth bigger, but to record the details accurately while people can still correct them. That fits Padelgids: not only telling people where they can play tomorrow, but also preserving where Dutch padel began yesterday.
Why This Is About More Than Nostalgia
The early court at De Herdgang also shows how quickly the standards of a new sport can change. In the pioneering phase, improvisation is often a strength: people can play without first having a complete ecosystem of contractors, coaches, booking apps and competitions. As the sport grows, those informal solutions become less practical. Players expect a court with the correct dimensions and surface; matches require consistent rules and clubs want a facility that can be booked intensively.
That gives an old, unused court a dual meaning. Sportingly, it has been overtaken; historically, it has become more important. Its value lies not in how many hours it can still be played on, but in what the location tells us about the beginning.
That is also why Padelgids does not need to see locations with a status such as ‘no longer in use’ as noise. An up-to-date search engine primarily wants to show where people can play today. A journalistic database can also remember where people once played. Together, those two layers provide a much more complete picture of the development of padel in the Netherlands.
De Herdgang may be the clearest example. The court does not need to be brought back to life to remain relevant. The fact that it lost its sporting function is itself part of the story: in a short period, padel grew from an improvised game at a training complex into a sport for which entire indoor facilities and specialized centers are being built.
The Core of This Story
Nothing here went fundamentally ‘wrong’. The court was mainly overtaken by the professionalization of padel. The historical lesson is therefore different: preserve locations even when they lose their original function. Without that archive, reconstructing the history of Dutch padel becomes a little more difficult every year.
More on Padelgids: the growth of padel in the Netherlands • all padel locations • padel in Eindhoven
