🧠Joining Pavilion to the club website you already have
For a club whose website is not WordPress and is not on this server — Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, or something a member built years ago. You do not have to move it or give it up. Allow an afternoon, most of which is waiting for the address to start working.
?Settle the address first
Pavilion goes at an address of its own, almost always members.yourclub.co.uk — a subdomain of the name the club already owns. Ask whoever you bought the club’s name from to point that subdomain at this server: one DNS record, and nothing at all is needed from the company hosting your existing website. Allow a few hours for it to start working.
Nobody knows who holds the club’s domain name Look up the name on a WHOIS service, or check the club’s bank statements for an annual payment to a hosting company. Find this out before you need it — a club that cannot get into its own domain is one lapsed renewal away from losing its website and its email together. | The existing site is on Wix or Squarespace That is fine and changes nothing. Those platforms will not run Pavilion themselves, which is exactly why it sits on its own subdomain. You will still be able to put your fixtures back onto the Wix pages afterwards. |
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2Check it loads over https
Type the new address in and look for the padlock. If it is missing, ask your host to add the free certificate now. Members will be typing card numbers into these pages, and a browser warning at that moment is the single fastest way to lose a subscription payment.
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3Make sure Pavilion’s pages exist
Settings → Your Website. If a page has not been made, there is nothing for a button to point at, and it will simply not appear on the next screen.
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4Copy the buttons out
Settings → Connect a Website. Choose a style, press save, and copy the block it builds. Paste it into your existing website wherever that site takes HTML — on Wix and Squarespace look for an “Embed” or “Custom HTML” block. The addresses are already filled in, so it works exactly as it stands.
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5Put Join somewhere obvious, first
Before the rest of the menu. It is the only button a stranger will ever press, and a good number of clubs get enquiries purely because it was on the front page rather than three clicks in.
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6Warn members that the address changes
Once, in the newsletter. When they click Book a Rink they will land on members.yourclub.co.uk, and if nobody has told them that is normal, a handful will assume it is a scam and ring the secretary. One sentence prevents all of it.
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?Then put your fixtures back onto your own site
Standard and above. On the same screen, tick Next fixtures and copy the one line it gives you onto the page that already has a fixture list — then delete the old list the same afternoon.
Why delete the old one straight away Two fixture lists on one website is worse than the stale one you started with. While there is only one, everybody knows it might be out of date; once there are two that disagree, nobody knows which to believe, and the club gets a phone call every time they differ. | The panel shows nothing That is what it does when there is genuinely nothing to show — an empty fixture list in February is correct, not broken. Check that fixtures exist in Pavilion first, and remember the panel updates within five minutes of a change, not instantly. |
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8Check the whole thing on a phone
Most members will only ever see this on a phone. Ask somebody who is not on the committee to find the fixture list and book a rink, and watch without helping. Whatever they hesitate over is the thing to fix.
💡 Tip: The two sites stay independent on purpose: if the club website goes down, bookings and subscriptions carry on regardless. That is the right way round, and it is worth knowing before somebody suggests putting everything back in one place.