Established in Lucé for 6 years, The Chartres Arena is a pioneer of padel in Eure-et-Loir. After having convinced a local public still unfamiliar with this sport, the 1800 m² complex is preparing a new phase of development. Objective: to offer more courts, host competitions, and even offer Pickelball in the long term.

Padel Magazine exchanged with Romain Bravard, the manager of the complex.

What were your motivations for opening this complex?

The Chartres Arena

"We were the first to open a padel court in Eure-et-Loir 6 years ago." He says he came up with the idea for this project with a friend. "Originally, the initial project was to open a soccer (futsal) court, and my partner knew and had already tried padel quite a few years ago, I'm talking about that, it was more than 15 years ago, in Laval, one of the cities where the development of padel arrived quite early, notably with the Laval tennis club which had launched this activity, and which was one of the pioneers in France. Since there was still space in the building, he convinced me to set up two padel courts in our complex, saying that he saw padel as a sport of the future. That's how the adventure began."

Did you encounter any difficulties in getting started with padel?

"So I'm not going to lie to you, for over a year it was very complicated to launch padel, because it wasn't very well known in the sector. And then, as time went by, people joined in and today the activity is very well launched. We have also submitted a new project in Chartres, to build 6 to 8 padel courts and change location in order to settle in a new building. The goal is to finally be able to host competitions thanks to courts that will be approved, unlike the current ones which are not suitable for competition. They will be replaced by 2 pickleball courts, so we will be the first complex to have them in Eure-et-Loir."

Why are there so few complexes like yours in Eure-et-Loir?

The Chartres Arena

“Indeed, I had already started to inquire, and in reality between Chartres and Yvelines, the problem is that ultimately, in the 78, Rambouillet, towns like that, the rents are too high, and you have to find buildings with a height of 10m, let’s say, so it’s not necessarily always easy… In short, to be profitable, you have to find buildings and moderate rents, unless you have a complex full from morning to night, and most people come to play between 18 p.m. and 00 p.m.
In Chartres, for example, it's complicated because we're not a student city at all. In areas like Paris or the Paris region, for example, you're definitely more likely to have people there."

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