Joseph Viéville: “The padel will be the most practiced sport in France in ten years”

After returning to the famous event featuring personalities at 4PADEL Montreal, Joseph Viéville, co-CEO of the PLAYERS group (Le Five / 4Padel), gives us exclusives regarding the franchise's upcoming center openings and also presents to us his vision of the place of padel in France.

New openings and expansion in Lille

By 2025, we plan to open two new 100% centers padel in the Lille area, in Seclin and Villeneuve d'Ascq. There will be 8 tracks of padel, thus meeting the growing demand in this region. It is possible that our expansion in Lille will not stop there. We are keeping an eye on the north and west of the city, considering potential opportunities for a third center. Work will begin soon and we can’t wait to see these clubs come to life.

The Cannes club and the Orléans project

The development of 4PADEL is not limited to Lille. We also have projects for the south of France, in Cannes. Work on our club there is expected to begin this summer, and if all goes according to plan, we will be ready to open our doors in 2025.

A center 4PADEL with 12 runways approaching Cannes!

In Orléans, an extension to the Fleury site is planned. Our goal is to increase the number of tracks from padel at eight. This expansion is a response to the growing demand for padel In the region. It should be completed within six to eight months, and we are convinced that it will bring great satisfaction to the Orleans community of padel which today has few leads.

Development and extensions

Our efforts to expand the padel in France do not stop there. In Vendée, in Chalon, between La Roche-sur-Yon and Saint-Jean-de-Monts, we plan to add three new slopes by summer 2024.

Regarding the Paris region, we have identified strong demand, particularly in the west of Paris. We have been looking for a long time to expand to the west of Paris, this is not easy since there is much less land available. To meet this demand, we are pleased to announce the opening of a new club in Vélizy, located on the A86. It will be a 100% center padel with ten tracks, planned for the first half of 2025. This project is a direct response to the needs of players who, until now, had to cross the city to reach our other centers.

Also in Île-de-France, in an Olympic facility near Porte de la Chapelle, not far from Marville, we plan to create nine tracks. This club is expected to open its doors in June 2025.

Also in the north of France, a new center will open its doors in Amiens in the fall of 2024 with ten indoor tracks.

Furthermore, opposite Five in Reims, we will inaugurate a new center 4PADEL, scheduled for the end of 2024. Our director in Reims, present for 15 years and a former footballer, has converted with passion to the padel.

4PADEL : In 10 years, it’s 15% of the private slopes market

We will have the establishment of a center in an Olympic site in Saint-Denis after the Olympic Games with nine pitches padel (editor’s note: planned for July 2025). It will be a real standard bearer for the brand at the national level.

On the Overseas Territories, we have four tracks open in Reunion and we have two openings which will be announced soon. In the Antilles, we have several projects, these are sports grounds with a good concentration of athletes.

We planned economically for 10 years on a number of annual openings. I don't know if we will continue to be the main player in France, regardless, but if we want to maintain a pace that supports this growth, the opening of six to eight centers per year corresponds to a realistic objective and consistent with our position. and our mission. We will have 200 tracks in 2025.

4PADEL and digital

The success of our centers is the practical and non-binding aspect. Digital technology makes it easy to make reservations, an optimal service for the player. We are lucky to have a digital application which allows us to have our land in such a center on such and such a day and at such a time for a positive experience without constraints. We are working on the digitalization of the practice, in particular recording our points, sharing the most beautiful points which allow us to have a viral aspect.

Working with the FFT

The collaboration is going perfectly well. We sit on the national committee of padel, bringing together several players from private centers. We talk regularly with the office padel of the federation regarding the structuring of the practice, the license, the competition, and the pedagogy as well.

Concerning pedagogy, we are considering going further with the school system. We aim to set up as many partnerships as possible with schools close to our centers. We intend to enter the racket cycle of national education, from primary to high school, the padel in its place. For us, it is a responsibility, a social mission.

Betclic Remontada 4Padel Valencians 2024

The place of padel today

I am convinced that the padel will have a central place in France. We will have a good leisure sporting practice anchored in the daily life of the French: playing padel to have a friendly time. I'm willing to bet that the padel will be the most practiced sport in France in ten years.

Although we may be delighted by the explosion in the number of girls taking up football, we will have fewer than padel. This phenomenon of hyper-mixed sport bodes well for great prospects. Tennis is the king of racquet sports today. But the padel is in the process of taking a place in television broadcasts, we are at the beginning of the training of the youngest… The padel will have supplanted many other practices in France.

Mentality padel

It's openness to others, a super leisure dimension that we find in pétanque or darts. We don't need technical mastery: two-three lessons, two-three matches and we can have sufficient background to play unlike football, basketball, swimming.

Allow those who have not found their balance in other sports to play. When we see a 50-year-old mother playing diligently even though she had given up sport 20 years ago because she was tired of going jogging on the weekend, we are happy, we have won our bet . THE padel has all the ingredients.

Joseph Vieville Franck Binisti 4 Padel 2024

La Betclic Remontada Padel

We tried to establish a way of playing that is friendly, where we don't take ourselves seriously, compete without worrying, mix experienced players with newbies. There is this unifying side where we can have fun with players of different levels. We don't deny the competition side, it's sport, but we don't forget that the main thing is to open it up to as many people as possible. Promote the padel from a leisure, pure and fun angle!

The virus" padel

Le padel allows people who have given up on the sport a little to start progressing again at the age of 40: a little physicality, a good hand, a good practice and we can compete with more athletic young people, but who are catchable in the sport. padel. And it is not in all sports that we can see this.

We are trying to contribute to retouching a form of addiction to sport, to a virus. These are scary words, but they are healthy illnesses.

Martin Schmuda

A competitive tennis player, Martin discovered the padel in 2015 in Alsace and appeared in a few tournaments in Paris. Today a journalist, he deals with current affairs padel while continuing its rise in the world of the little yellow ball!