An unpaid name on a list is not an entry. It is a rumour with a mobile number. Treat it like an entry and you will spend Saturday morning texting people who “thought they said maybe.”
Left is how you become a debt collector. Right is how you become an organiser again.
This is the registration desk we wish we had on the first club open. Not a form for the sake of a form. A list that matches the courts you actually booked.
If you want the whole Saturday, start with How to Organise a Padel Tournament. This piece is the front door: names, money, waitlist, close.
Ask for less than a visa, more than a first name
Paper lists grow a second “Alex.” WhatsApp lists grow a third.
You need enough to seed and to find someone at 8am. You do not need their life story.
Name + phone
One spelling. One number you will actually call if court 2 goes dark. Email is nice. Phone is how padel works.
Partner, or solo
Fixed pair, or “place me.” If they are solo, say whether you will match them or waitlist them. Silence here is two refunds later.
A clumsy level
Beginner / intermediate / advanced is ugly and still better than nothing. Club rating if you have one. “Intermediate except for trophies” is a known species. Put them where the matches will be fun.
Payment status
Paid, reserved, waitlist. Three states. Not “he told Tomás at the bar.”
T-shirt size, favourite colour, “how did you hear about us.” Save it for the membership form. Every extra field is a person who closes the tab on the tram.
A hard cap is a kindness
Your courts decide the number. Not your optimism.
An Americano wants groups of four. A group-stage Saturday wants pairs that fit the hours you have — we put the maths in How many courts and hours you need. Pick the number, print it, stop adding “just one more pair on court 2.”
A waitlist is kinder than a maybe. Maybes show up in twos, both expecting a court.
A waitlist that works:
- Ordered. First unpaid cancellation goes to the first name who still wants it.
- Paid to confirm, or a short window (“you have 12 hours”). Open-ended “we’ll see” waitlists are how you text eight people on Friday night.
- Public-ish. People should know they are #3, not “on the list” in the same way lottery tickets are on a list.
If you are running an Americano, cap at a multiple of four that fits the courts. 13 “confirmed” is not generosity. It is a sit-out with hurt feelings.
Take the fee when they register
This is the whole no-show policy, wearing a card machine.
People who have paid arrive. People who “meant to Bizum you after work” become literature. We have run both versions. The literature is longer.
Three ways this can land on the same entry list:
| Method | Use it when | Do not use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Card in the product (Stripe) | Most of the field has a phone and a card | Your club already lives on cash at reception and will not change this month |
| Mark as paid outside | Bizum, till, “I already paid Tomás” | You never actually mark them, so the list lies |
| Cash on the day | A tiny social you personally trust | Anything with a waitlist. Cash-on-the-day is how #1 on the waitlist stays home |
The software should record the fee. It should not force Auntie Linda through a card form in the car park if she already paid at the desk.
Typical club socials we see in Europe sit around €10–€25 per player: courts, balls, something that looks like a trophy. Charge more when you are actually giving more — a long Saturday, a referee, food that is not a bowl of bananas. Charge less and you will resent the admin. Resentful hosts quit.
Refunds: write one sentence before anyone pays. “Full refund until Thursday 18:00, then we offer the spot to the waitlist.” Inventing a policy at 21:00 on Friday is how you donate a court to someone who is already in a restaurant.
Card-only products lose the pair who paid cash. Cash-only lists lose the pair who will not chase you. The same row should accept either. That is a boring feature and it is the one that stops you opening banking apps at midnight.
The partner problem, and the 8am ghost
One player drops. The remaining one should not have to hunt Instagram.
Say this on the way in:
- A pair may name a substitute from a short reserve list, or you assign one
- The sub cannot be a first-division ringer “helping out” in the B draw
- If nobody can fill, the spot goes to the waitlist as a pair if you can, or you refund and shrink
Silence here loses two people, not one. Sometimes four, if their opponents also evaporate.
Solo entries: either you are running an Americano (good — they do not need a husband) or you are matching pairs before the close. Do not match them at 9:50 on Saturday. That is a blind date with a warm-up.
Close entries, then draw. Not the other way around.
Last-minute adds after the schedule is public create the exact chaos you were escaping.
A clean close looks like this:
-
1
Set a close time that is not “Friday, late”
Thursday evening for a Saturday. Twenty-four hours before a weeknight social. You need time to seed, to message the waitlist, to tell court 3 it is happening.
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2
Move the waitlist once, in public
If two pairs drop, the next two get a yes and a payment link. Then you stop. A rolling close until 10am is a second job.
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3
Draw when the list is paid and still
Seed if you have signal. Split the loud confident pair from their equally loud friends. Then publish one link: who, when, which court.
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4
Stop taking “can we still join”
You can be kind on the waitlist for next month. You cannot be kind to the draw. The draw does not care that someone’s cousin is in town.
Fine for eight friends. At two courts and a waitlist, you now have three tools that do not speak, and you are the translator. The form does not know who paid. The sheet does not know who dropped. The chat does not know anything and will invent a table anyway.
If they still text you “are we in?”, the confirmation was not a confirmation. A receipt, a place number, and a link to the event beat a thumbs-up emoji from 2019.
Registration was the part we refused to do in WhatsApp
Share a link. Players sign up with a partner or solo, pay in-app, or you mark them paid at reception. Hard cap, a list you can close, then a draw that already knows who is real. Chat and availability live in the app; anyone can follow the event from the web link.
Should I take payment on the day?
Only if the field is small and you like the people. The moment you have a waitlist, on-the-day cash punishes the person who stayed home “in case.” Take it up front. Refund the polite cancellations.
What if someone pays and does not show?
They funded the court. That is the deal. Offer the spot to the waitlist if you still can. Do not also refund unless your written rule says so — you will train the club to book as a maybe.
Do players need the app to register?
They need a way to enter and a way to pay. In Padel Playground, joining, chat, availability and in-app payment live in the app. Guests can still follow the draw and table from a browser link. Do not make spectators download anything to see a score.