At the very end of 2022, we offered to give your opinions on the ideal club of padel, particularly in terms of prices and services. More than 120 people – whom we warmly thank – answered our questions in detail: a record in our series of surveys.

Through your answers, a fascinating panorama of the economy of the padel in France – one of the rare countries where private and associative clubs coexist – and the expectations of players. However, this survey is far from being exhaustive and has no scientific pretensions.

■ The price per hour.- The least that can be said is that the players of padel are not equal in terms of the price paid to practice their passion. It all depends on the place where they play and whether the club of their choice is associative or private and lucrative – but also on the complex, covered or not, with or without premium services.

If we talk about the price of game time, the range is wide: in your answers, the lowest price to play is 20 € / h, or €5 per hour per person; generally, these are outdoor courts, sometimes during off-peak hours. Conversely, the hourly rate can increase to a maximum of 46 € / h for a covered track, i.e. €11,5 per player; such a price can be found, for example, on the Côte d'Azur, in clubs that will be described as “upscale”. But a brand new club, which has just opened in the Grand Est region, displays prices between 32 and 44 €/h, depending on whether it is peak or off-peak hours.

Without going to these extremes, in most regions of France, the average player spends between 7 and 9€ to play during the full hour, i.e. 28 to 36 €/h at four. This means without renting racquets or balls, of course.

Up to 3000 € subscription per year

■ The subscriptions.- Given the sometimes high hourly rates, some players take their calculator and prefer to subscribe. The lucky ones can do it in tennis clubs equipped with tennis courts. padel : it usually costs less than 200 euros per year to play as many slots as there are available.

The lowest fare reported to us takes us to Normandy, to Gisors : €81 for an adult and even €40 for tennis members. For those under 18, these rates drop respectively to €50 and €20 per year! But at this price, there is only one short of padel, not covered.

Private clubs also sell monthly, quarterly or annual memberships. According to our witnesses, these are negotiated from €500 (in Nice), €750 (in Saint-Louis), even €350 in Béziers! But be careful, because in some cases the number of weekly slots is not unlimited. The highest rates that have been reported to us are reached in the Paris region, with subscriptions at 1800 or even 3000 € (a case detailed below).

It should be noted that other formulas exist, such as the sale of hours in number or the rates negotiated by works councils.

■ Budgets in thousands of euros.- We told you, the padel is a sport that is expensive in France, especially for “addicts” who pay by the session. Of those who responded, almost one in six players pay €800 or more per year to rent pitches. And one in ten goes over €1000 with, for some, spending records at €2000 (in the Paris region and in Marseille)! Or even €3000, the particular case of a player from the Parisian suburbs whose subscription includes other services (squash, swimming pool, etc.).

And we remind you, these amounts only reflect the money spent on land: if we add rackets, balls, shoes, clothing, tournaments and beverage and travel expenses, we explode all the ceilings.

Contributions for less than 100 €!

Note that the majority of respondents eat “at several racks”, that is to say that they play in two, three, four or even six (!) clubs. This is the price to pay to obtain slots in sectors where demand exceeds supply, but also to benefit from covered land and multiple partners. This is why many of you have a membership in an associative club and also rent courts in a private club.

■ The most economical.- Rarely a single club rhymes with unfair prices: the most economical practitioners are the least "fickle", those who do not multiply clubs. This is how players from Gisors (Normandy), Tulette (Drôme) or Sartrouville (Yvelines) spend between 80 and 100 € per year for their subscription. But at this price, it is extremely rare to benefit from a room: at best it will be a semi-covered ground.

Many aficionados choose to pay an annual fee to a tennis club – usually between €100 and €200 – while also booking the session at a private venue. The total bill often exceeds €500, flirting for some big players with the €1000 mark.

The price, criterion n°1 for 1 out of 4 players

■ Your selection criteria.- We asked our respondents to specify, in order of importance, the criteria they prefer to choose where to play, among the following choices: price, quality of the pitches, presence of covered pitches, geographical proximity, changing rooms, bar or restaurant , number and level of potential partners, availability of land, existence of an app or groups connecting players.

Among the 121 people who answered us, 31 ranked the price criterion first, i.e. 25,6% of those polled. It is, by very little, the main criterion in your eyes, just ahead of the possibility of playing sheltered from bad weather, essential for 24,8% of respondents.

The quality of land comes just after (22,3%) and ahead of geographical proximity (13,2%). Finally, only 7,4% of you consider the availability of land as the essential criterion, but many rank it in 2nd or 3rd position.

Among the secondary criteria, you give little importance to the locker rooms, to the app for connecting players and… to the bar or restaurant. Does this last point suggest that the after-padel not as important as they say? In any case, not decisive in your choices!

Value for money: a close match

■ Satisfaction.- Price is one thing, satisfaction is another. And there is not necessarily a correlation between the two: paying five or ten times more per hour of play does not mean that we will be five or ten times more (or less) happy with the session. To try to assess the satisfaction of our respondents, we asked them to rate from 1 to 10 the quality/price ratio of their favorite club, whether associative or private.

And beware, the match is very, very tight: the average score for private clubs is 6,71 and that for association clubs is 6,77! The latter are generally judged to be user-friendly and inexpensive, but are penalized by the smaller number of pitches and, sometimes, by the absence of a hall. Conversely, the private ones have tariffs considered “very expensive” or “excessive”, but compensate for this by often top-of-the-range services and by their dominant or exclusive position on the market.

Note that private clubs are more divisive: some players give theirs 10/10, but others are intransigent and do not hesitate to “sack”, with scores of 1 or 2/10. The ratings of the associative clubs are more homogeneous: many 10/10s on one side at the top of the table and very few ratings below 4/10.

Conviviality one of the strengths of the padel

■ The paradise of padel.- At the end of our investigation, we suggested that you draw up a composite portrait of your ideal club, a sort of paradise of padel where everyone dreams of spending most of their time. In this post-modern Garden of Eden, there would be – to read you – “a lot of covered courts in very good condition”, an “annual subscription with unlimited play”, “reasonable prices”, lighting “which does not not blind” and no misplaced windows, “experienced” and “passionate coaches”, a “family atmosphere”, “tournaments and entertainment”, a “reservation app”, a “welcoming bar” or even “tracks with retractable roof for indoor play in winter and outdoor play in summer”. Without forgetting a “regular maintenance of the grounds” including windows, a “warm-up area with 3-4 elliptical bikes”, but also “the possibility of participating in the team championships with the club”. All of this, of course, “less than 15 or 20 minutes from home…

This is just a small glimpse of the detailed answers you have given us and for which we thank you again. Answers so rich and complete that they will soon give rise to a new article on your ideal club!

To find our previous surveys on balls, rough rackets, courts with or without sand, That happens here.

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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