Bastien Peytureau and Steven Galbrun joined forces to buy two municipal tennis courts. With the help of the town hall, they transformed them into paddle courts.
In Saint-Méard de Gurçon
Bastien Peytureau, the president of the GS Padel company, introduced his childhood friend Steven Galbrun to tennis. “Like many infrastructures, the land in the municipality has deteriorated over the years“, recalls Steven Galbrun. Some time later, the two friends discovered padel and loved the discipline. Two weeks later, they decided to build padel courts in Saint-Méard de Gurson by buying the tennis courts owned by the town hall. It only took them 4 months to purchase and transform the old tennis courts. “We were in a bit of a hurry“, sourit Steven.
Cyril Barde, mayor of the town and sports lover, supported the project from start to finish. “However, it was not won. Buying land from the town hall is very complicated. Cyril Barde helped us with the administration, it is thanks to him that this project was successful“, underlines Steven Galbrun.
A 100% autonomous system
Padel is a social sport, since you need four people to play it. “We set up a Whatsapp group which allows individual players to form a team. In two months, more than 200 people have downloaded the application. Today on the conversation there are more than 110 people. And for the month of September alone, we had 80 reservations“, lists Steven.
The grounds are 100% autonomous, the only ones in New Aquitaine. “Simply reserve a slot on the GS Padel application“, explains Steven Galbrun, “this gives a code to open the gate”. Connected lockers allow players to collect rackets and balls on site. The application offers 1h30 slots for €8, 7 days a week from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. The two friends are not doing this for the money since “The profits will be used to cover the land and redevelop it.“
“A country padel”
“The village has 800 inhabitants, here, it's a rural padel! Usually, these lands are located in large cities, says Steven Galbrun. We didn't expect people to come from so far to play padel. There are some who are from Marmande or Coutras for example. We put everything aside so that it would go quickly and it would pay off!“, exclaims the thirty-year-old.
The company GS Padel has a partnership with Esprit Padel Shop, the largest padel store on the internet. Members can therefore order items there.
Benjamin Dufour, 85e French padel player, gave padel lessons at the end of September. Pierre-Ambroise Bosse, world athletics champion, also chose the GS Padel company to practice the discipline.
