Co-founder of the South club Padel from Vailhauquès near Montpellier, Guillaume Codron immerses us in the world of this family project, one year after its opening. From the infrastructures, to the tournaments as well as the numerous events which have conquered the padelists of Montpellier, he takes us behind the scenes of this unique adventure.
We opened April 1, 2023 with four tracks. Given the rapid filling of slots, after 9 months we decided to launch work on two new tracks. They have been open to the public since the end of February 2024. We also have two covered Pickleball courts, a large terrace with pétanque court, a clubhouse with good beer. Basically, a nice place to meet up with friends or family.
Our club is above all a family story: my father is the president, my brother plays the role of sports manager and coach, my mother juggles between accounting and orders, my sister is also involved in the project and regularly ensures permanences. For my part, I am in charge of partnerships, sponsors and communication.
We also have an employee to provide on-call duty, a work-study student who supports me in communication and event organization and a second teacher of padel. We are already a great team!
We have a large central terrace near the pitches, parking, changing rooms and a pro-shop. After a year, our backs are a little stronger and we will be able to develop all aspects of our structure, from catering to playing on the field.
Our desire was to create a friendly living space between the grounds. During tournaments, our clubhouse and our large terrace are stormed. Families, friends and colleagues feel good there and want to stay there after their games.
South Padel there are almost more than 3000 customers since opening, 170 licensees, a social community of nearly 1500 people and almost 100 events. We are very proud of the progress we have made, which encourages us to pursue our ambitions.
Indeed, we have the pleasure and the chance to organize our first P3 men on August 4 and 1000. With regulatory exits of three meters on almost all our slopes, this provides a beautiful spectacle that Padel Magazine will cover, of course.
Many clubs are located in the Montpellier region, competition is therefore present but this is positive and proves the enthusiasm and interest for the padel. It is also the opportunity to not rest on our laurels and to offer a real customer experience: we are in the constant search for improvement for all of our services.
Moreover, our customer feedback is valuable and useful, and the least we can say is that it is very positive. Concerning the surrounding clubs, the atmosphere is good, we have even developed partnerships with some, particularly in the event of bad weather conditions on tournament days.
The club is one year old since April 1st and we decided to mark the occasion by inviting all our customers, partners and suppliers for a special event on Saturday April 27th. On the program: exhibition match, competitions, good music and cocktails. A great opportunity to party and maintain the friendly atmosphere that reigns within the club!
In the more or less short term, we plan to make improvements to our exterior facilities to make them even more welcoming but also to do some work on the interior.
For example, there are the changing rooms which will be enlarged and also the entire part intended for businesses in order to develop seminar and team building activities.
We are very happy with this first year of activity and enjoy the progress we have made. We look forward to writing the rest of the adventure with our customers by our side.