Exclusive interview with Stéphane Peuvergne et Charles Alexander who represented the Tennis Padel Greater Besancon on the occasion of the second edition of the Sports Management Trophy.

Arrival at Tennis Padel Greater Besancon

Charles: The previous adventure was as you know the Spoon Center. We had discussed at length with Stéphane for a global recovery of the Spoon. He obviously analyzed the whole context, the figures … and his decision was to go to Besançon given the context, but also because it is a league center, which also includes tennis.

All that done, he decided with his great generosity to accompany me on this project, I would even say more than accompany me!

Many projects to come

Stéphane: We are between the two P1000s. The women's P1000 took place just 3 weeks ago, and the men's P1000 is scheduled for June 3. Today, we still have 5 P500s over the year, a women's P1000 dedicated only to women over a weekend - which went very well by the way - a men's P1000 also which made me elsewhere discover the Besançon club last year. It is a superb and tree-lined club, with both a tennis and padel, which is now booming.

Charles: The new structures are a project that is well in place. We are now at more than 150 licensees padel in 6-7 months, which is already colossal for a city like Besançon, and around 315-320 licensees in all. We took over the club in November, and we have to say that the season was already well underway.

So it's already a good thing and then we have this project of two tracks of padel additional indoor, to also allow to develop a little more the courses, the female practice, the school of padel for the children… well, the standard development, let's say, which all the clubs in France have to do today.

charles alexandre and stephane management sports besançon
charles alexandre and stephane management sports besançon
charles alexandre and stephane management sports besançon

Set up a club padel, it's all a learning

Charles: We are not going to dwell on the global economic model of the padel, that would take too long. But the model today is obviously different from what it was 7 years ago. Everyone has access to the business plan you need to set up a club today. padel and that we didn't have 7 years ago when we set up the club.

We also overdeveloped all of a sudden in one year, you still have to tell yourself that we went from 2-3 to 11 employees and we took it badly... that too is a structuring , a structure that today takes Stéphane into pure business, something that I am still learning over and over again.

So as much as the development of the athlete, I think we had done it well, as much as the ability of the club to balance between rent and others, it was a little more complicated.

The only thing I can say today is: “don't go into a project if you don't have the ability to balance from the start between the purchase of real estate or a rent much lower than your profitability of course”. These are standards, but often they are not taken into consideration from the start.

Adapt, evolve and respond to demand

Stéphane: We can already thank the French Tennis Federation which granted us, through the Bourgogne Franche Comté League, management of this site for a period of 11 years. We are on a commercial operating lease. They accompany us well on the development since they had already accompanied the Spoon on the creation of the grounds of padel and on the site (to develop the site and the padel on the region).

Today, we are also going to bring our stone to the building initially on the reflection of works in the perimeter of activity padel, because we still had locker rooms, a club house which were very aging. So that's more like my dough, because of my activities in the building industry, that's ultimately the point of getting together with Charles.

The locker rooms are already operational, so we are finishing there on the works. For the P1000 already, the players will be able to realize the difference, for those who came last year. The club house is the same, 90% finished, we are able to receive people without problems.

Today, it was also time to respond to the strong demand since we are beginning to have the same problem as on all the sites which are developing rapidly: a lack of slots in the evening, on the most popular slots. So the two pitches with commission in June, we all hope so for the club and the possibility of covering an outdoor track to be at 5 covered pitches and 2 outside.

It will be serious very quickly since there, growth is very rapid and we finally still have a significant possibility of development with the start of the school year in September and the arrival of a professor of padel which will also allow us to start canvassing a little harder.

His name is Mehdi Chouchaoui, he has recently joined the club and he wants to accompany us on this adventure. We took him here on the trophy. He is a dynamic 25-year-old boy who is very friendly.

Find the interview just below:

Eleonore Coulibaly

What a pleasure to be a journalist in the middle of the padel, an attractive growing sport. I hope you enjoy the content offered. See you soon perhaps on the slopes!

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