“Creating a real leisure center”, a new place to practice padel opens its doors in Lattes

Les pistes sont prêtes et ouvrent ce lundi à Lattes. Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

On Monday, January 13, a brand new center dedicated to padel opens on Avenue Georges-Frèche in Lattes. The result of a project led by three entrepreneurs from Hérault.

Boris Vennin, Vincent Grandvillain and Laurent Barralis are touching on the dream of all entrepreneurs and padel enthusiasts: creating their own center dedicated to the discipline.

This Monday, January 13, Lattes Padel Club opens its doors with six latest generation courts built on a 12,000m2 plot of land along Avenue Georges-Frêche, between the Lez market and the Carrefour Grand Sud shopping area. “It's the culmination of a fantasy, that of all padel players,” smiles Laurent Baralis, one of the three partners. We are entrepreneurs, it happened naturally. We play together regularly and after the games, over a beer, we started dreaming of starting our own business. And one day, we each had a business plan on our laptops. The three of us were coherent and we said to ourselves that we would give it a try.”

A club in development

The trio then had to find a location, “the crux of the matter, according to Boris Vennin, business leader and founder, among other things, of the Game Taverne games bar. We had this opportunity and since we are from Lattois, we wanted to do it locally. This location is perfect in the Montpellier Sud area with the tram that passes in front, a busy cycle path, a dynamic professional environment…”

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The partners of the next trendy place dedicated to padel know where they want to go. To start, they had modern tracks installed to delight players: two-tone carpet, two panoramic tracks, anti-glare lighting to meet the specifications of the world padel circuit.

While it will be possible to reserve a track to play from Monday, the entire club will be ready in March with a large car park, changing rooms, a clubhouse with rooftop, a bar and catering service, as well as a 110m2 space for organizing events and a large terrace. “Our aim is to create a real leisure centre for individuals and businesses, a club that is set to grow,” explains Laurent Barralis. “There is a strong demand for padel to organise team building events, seminars, meetings…” “We want a friendly, sporty and lively place,” adds Boris Vennin. “We hope to attract whole families.”

With the future creation of six additional tracks including indoor courts but also pickleball, beach volleyball and pétanque courts, as well as the installation of table tennis tables and a play area for children, the trio, accompanied by the site manager Christophe Bessieres, is putting all the chances on their side to make their dream a success.

Where to play Padel in Montpellier and the surrounding area ? Midi Libre Infographic

Serge Cruz (Hérault Tennis Committee): “The evolution is mind-blowing”

How are you experiencing the boom around the padel ?

In the Hérault department, there is an annual double-digit increase in the number of tracks, licensees and tournaments. The evolution is mind-blowing. This can be explained by the number of tracks: 133 in the entire department, 84 outdoors and 49 indoors. Hérault is the best equipped in the Occitanie region. The structures in Hérault are mainly private but some tracks have been built in the heart of tennis clubs, which has allowed the number of members to increase each time. There are around 30 structures with padel tracks in Hérault.

How do you explain this dynamism ?

Padel is a very easy sport to practice, particularly fun. We first saw a large migration of tennis players towards the discipline. We see a lot of mixed pairs, family… About 50% of players play competitively and the other half for leisure.

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