Laure moreau, President of the Communication Commission of Yvelines Tennis Committee, accepted Lorenzo Lecci Lopez's interview request on THE subject: le padel.

With her expert eye and her great experience in communication, Laure Moreau gives us her opinion on the growth of this sport in France and the policy led by the FFT.

Le padel can only develop

The development of Padel is already one of the development axes of the FFT

Le padel is a complementary offer to tennis: we attract new licensees through a new fun and friendly practice. Clubs need to reinvent their business model, new offers and the padel is a real development opportunity ...

We feared that tennis would lose players to the benefit of padel however, with hindsight, the percentage is minimal.

I will go even further: I think the padel allows players to remain under the fold of the FFT and limit the decline in the number of tennis licensees. If on paper, it is still complicated to understand the phenomenon well, we can see this trend very clearly in the field; at the same time, we attract padel "new" sometimes beginners but the big advantage of padelis that there is something for everyone whatever their level. Moreover, in Yvelines as in Ile-de-France, many tennis clubs are not mistaken: they are equipped with tennis courts. Padel and its development is only increasing!

Tennis and padel : compatible and more!

We don't have the same history padel with Spain… Empirically, people who have played tennis for a long time have fun at Padel or even compete too.

But of course, you don't necessarily find what you feel in tennis when you play in singles for example.

For me, these are indeed 2 different but complementary sports, if only because the padel is more accessible for beginners. I have yet to meet anyone who has played padel and not have fun!

For trying the padel, I would even say that we can find a certain complementarity there mainly at the level of the fly!

The two sports are complementary and more and more tennis clubs are betting on padel to regain attractiveness.

I sometimes hear players and clubs talking about the development of a French Federation of Padel. Frankly, I don't see it that way. The FFT has expertise that can help the development of the practice of padel avoiding certain mistakes of the past ...

Clubs padel growing

Competition will increase as many FFT affiliate clubs have projects padel and interclubs padel are now a reality in several departments, especially ours.

We should perhaps think about more coherence in the development of the padel in our territory. But it's far from that simple. Today, many tennis clubs want padel. We see this demand growing more and more.

There is real work by the FFT upstream to work on this development strategy of padel in France. The Yvelines are also associated with the inherent strategic thinking, in particular via Catherine Lefebvre, President of US Pecq Tennis, who heads the commission Padel of the IDF League.

The FFT relies on the attractiveness of this new sport to boost its clubs. And I think the FFT is right to enjoy this new sport. In my opinion, it's win-win.

Le padel needs tennis to accelerate his development. Tennis must take advantage of this wave padel to reinvent itself.

La padel professional: not a showcase for the moment

I don't think the padel professional or elite is a showcase for the moment. It is certainly an additional showcase, but our investment must be made mainly at the grassroots level, that is to say the leisure. Let's avoid making some mistakes of the past.

Do not try to gild our coat of arms at all costs when there is everything to do. There is a time for everything. But let's not sulk our pleasure and our pride because the Yvelines still have elite players padel with Benjamin Tison and Adrien Maigret, former tennis players!

Le padel remains an emerging sport where there is everything to do and it is also very motivating! We must insist on access to the practice of this new sport for all.

The FFT has a development strategy

We must develop the padel hand in hand with the tennis federation. 

The FFT has made it a strategic development axis and it now has expertise in this area. He must eventually be helped to better organize himself, to better optimize his financial investments. Today, we have, in my opinion, put too much emphasis on the competition part.

One of the missions of the FFT is to support its affiliated clubs and that is what it does! And so we try to help them through the strategies of the FFT, the league and the departmental committee.

Competition is important but ...

Of course, competition is important, but is not the investment disproportionate to the development aid of the padel in leisure, to the promotion of this sport to make it discover to the greatest number?

We are talking about €500.000 over a year for less than ten stages of the FFT PADEL TOUR. The circuit has the merit of existing. But even if the Federation can afford it, one can imagine that concentrating this budget on the very promotion of this sport could have been more effective...

As I said earlier, the FFT is banking on padel and that is a very good thing. But to invest as much for the elite of padel French, and even if I understand that having a real sports showcase is necessary for development, isn't that a little too expensive to pay?

This sport must be democratized, and for that, it must be made more visible via a padel in “city centers”. And the FFT is working hard on it, myself as club president I am currently working on it! Maybe invest in people who bring people in. Even in tennis, it's not that easy.

I think the tennis experience can be useful for padel. So let's take advantage!

From his names, we can guess his Spanish and Italian origins. Lorenzo is a multilingual passionate about sports: journalism by vocation and events by worship are his two legs. He is the international gentleman of Padel Magazine. You will often see it on the various international competitions, but also on the major French events. @eyeofpadel on Instagram to see his best photos of padel !

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