Among the challenges that await Gilles Moretton, new president of the French Tennis Federation (and of padel), one of them consists of avoid the dispersion and scattering of players from padel between multiple small clubs.

Indeed, in some regions, many tennis clubs have built one or two tennis courts. padel, in addition to their tennis activity. This new offer has made it possible to convert some licensees from these clubs to padel and attract players from padel from elsewhere. But one or two short of padel - especially outside - rarely allow to federate a real community of players.

This requires more land and also covered structures, especially in areas where the weather is cold and humid. These are therefore especially private structures, whose offer is more successful, which until now have made it possible to form communities of players and players of padel, by organizing tournaments or events.

Spread the virus padel

If the number of padel is expected to increase in France, as is the case in Italy, riding a Belgium or Sweden, it should avoid a scattering of fields leading to a swarming of players. Indeed, the virus padel will not be able to prosper if the players are confined to their small club, without interaction with those of other structures!

A Padel Magazine, we see several avenues to “deconfin” the players as much as possible and boost the “incidence rate”, in order to spread the virus of padel.

casa genval club belgium indoor panoramic ground
Photos IMAGELLAN by Philippe Buissin Casa Genval Belgium

Encourage joint investments

Ideally, to develop the padel, we have to play together. Therefore, rather than pushing each small tennis club to build its own small tennis court, padel in its corner, the FFT will have to encourage clubs to set up collective projects. The idea is that the clubs pool their resources and energies to create an ambitious offer, with three or more courts, and if possible rooms. This is how it will be possible to offer activities, schools of padel, competitions, etc.

Promote the creation of agreements

For clubs that have already built one or two courts of padel, the FFT can still avoid dispersion by promoting the creation of agreements between clubs padel from the same geographic area. As in ski resorts, the idea is to offer players a "large area Instead of being satisfied with multiple “small areas”.

If we take the example of three neighboring clubs operating in an agreement, their players could choose to play either in three clubs for a contribution of around € 250 (large area), or in two clubs for € 200 (average domain), or in a single club for 150 € (small domain) ...

A reservation software common to the three clubs would make it possible to distribute the amounts of the contributions between the different clubs in proportion to the hours played by each player in each of the three clubs.

Cheap guest tickets

Other avenues exist for the FFT to ensure that players are not compartmentalized club by club but form a large community of enthusiasts. One of them is to push clubs to include a significant number of guest hours in their annual dues, and then to charge very low prices for guest tickets. To propose very attractive rates for couples, families and young people is another way to seduce whole families, who will be able to flourish in this extremely unifying and convivial sport.

In short, there is no shortage of ideas and need to be implemented in the months and years to come. The arrival of new blood at FFT can contribute to this, as well as the creation of a specific license padel, which is likely to increase resources and therefore the possibility of subsidizing a virtuous development of this discipline. Work with private structures, which are today the engine of the growth of the padel, will also need to be improved!

Main photo credit: Court 17

After 40 years of tennis, Jérôme falls into the pot of padel in 2018. Since then, he thinks about it every morning while shaving… but never shaves pala in hand! Journalist in Alsace, he has no other ambition than to share his passion with you, whether you speak French, Italian, Spanish or English.

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