Padel municipal: how cities are reinventing the management of their sports facilities

Municipal padel is gaining ground in France. After its widespread development in private clubs and specialized complexes, the sport is now attracting local authorities. From Gagny to Montgenèvre, via Villargondran, municipalities are investing in courts accessible to residents and visitors, with a model increasingly based on online booking, self-service access, and tiered pricing.

The development of padel in France no longer concerns only the private sector. For some municipalities, building a municipal padel court This becomes a way to expand the local sports offering, but also to rethink the management of public facilities.

Because once the track is installed, a question immediately arises: how to manage reservations, payments, access and user requests without constantly mobilizing municipal services?

It is precisely in this area that digital solutions such as Anybuddy , already used by several French communities.

Villargondran: municipal land accessible independently

À villargondran In Savoie, the municipal padel court illustrates this evolution. Players can book their time slot online via Anybuddy and then access the facility via a connected access control system.

In Villargondran, a municipal padel court is accessible independently, with booking on Anybuddy and connected access control.

The advantage for a municipality is being able to open its facilities widely without having to physically organize each reservation or key handover.

The principle can also allow some time slots to be retained, others to be opened to the public, and different rules of use to be defined.

Different rates for residents and non-resident players

Pricing is precisely one of the key issues of municipal padel .

A community may wish to reserve an advantage for its constituents, with a preferential rate or even, depending on the model chosen, free access, while allowing external players to reserve available slots at another price.

This logic makes it possible to reconcile the vocation of public service of a municipal facility and its openness to a wider population.

Anybuddy states that it can manage this differentiation and also verify proof of address documents through its customer service, available seven days a week. Therefore, the town hall does not necessarily have to process each request individually.

Gagny: two municipal pitches open for online booking

La City of Gagny , in Seine-Saint-Denis, has adopted this system for its two municipal padel courts.

The municipality maintains preferential pricing for its residents, while external players can also reserve slots open to the public.

The two municipal padel courts of the City of Gagny, available for booking on Anybuddy.

For the community, the challenge is twofold: to offer new facilities to residents while improving its occupancy rate by opening up availability to other players.

According to information provided by Anybuddy, the land generates several tens of thousands of euros in bookings per year , thus contributing to the amortization of the investment made by the municipality.

Montgenèvre is banking on padel to strengthen its tourism offering

Nearly 1 meters above sea level , the case of Montgenevre in the Hautes-Alpes, responds to a different logic.

The station recently inaugurated two municipal padel courts in order to diversify its sporting offerings beyond activities traditionally associated with the mountains.

The pitches can be reserved and paid for online at AnybuddyResidents, holidaymakers and visitors can thus access the slopes directly.

In Montgenèvre, two new municipal padel courts in the heart of the Alps, bookable directly on Anybuddy.

In a tourist town, the function of the court thus goes beyond simply providing a service to residents. Padel can also become tourist attraction equipment , likely to be used by a much wider population during peak periods at the station.

The examples of Gagny and Montgenèvre thus show two different uses of the same equipment: local sports for residents on the one hand, diversification of the tourism offer the other.

Booking, access, refunds: simplifying daily management

The construction of the field represents only one part of the project for a community.

Then there is the matter of managing reservations, any cancellations and refund requests, invoices, access problems, and user questions.

Anybuddy offers communities the option of handling this booking-related aspect through its customer service available seven days a week.

The aim is, in particular, to avoid municipal employees having to provide daily assistance themselves for a few padel courts.

Towards more autonomous municipal sports facilities?

The success of municipal padel could ultimately illustrate a broader evolution of public sports infrastructure.

The question is no longer just which equipment to build, but also how to make them easily accessible and usable with as few constraints as possible .

Online booking and payment, connected access control, pricing based on user profile, and remote assistance now make it possible to imagine facilities operating with significant autonomy.

For padel, whose courts are rapidly multiplying in France, this development opens up a new market: that of local authorities and municipal sports facilities .

From Villargondran to Gagny via Montgenèvre, the first examples show above all that the model can be adapted both to a municipality wishing to offer an additional service to its inhabitants and to a tourist destination seeking to diversify its offering.

The municipal padel court is therefore no longer just a new sports facility. It is also becoming a laboratory for the connected management of public facilities.

LEARN MORE ABOUT DEVELOPING A PADEL PROJECT FOR A LOCAL AUTHORITY: HERE].

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