University of the Pacific constructing complex for pickleball and padel

Aug. 30—STOCKTON — University of the Pacific is poised to become the first college campus in the country with a sports complex for one of the fastest growing sports in America.

The college has partnered with San Diego-based Taktika Padel to begin constructing a 12-court complex for pickleball and padel just north of Pacific's Eve Zimmerman Tennis Center.

The venue, which includes eight pickleball courts and four padel courts, is expected to be operational by the fall, complete with lights and video cameras for live streaming.

"This unique and powerful partnership will serve the Pacific community by providing two exciting new sports for our students to play while filling a great need in the Central Valley for more pickleball courts and introducing people to the exciting sport of padel," Pacific president Christopher Callahan said in a media statement.

Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the U.S., nearly doubling from 4.8 million players in 2021 to 8.9 million last year. It is also expanding from an activity popular among seniors to growing among younger adults, according to the Sports Fitness Industry Association.

However, padel remains little known in the U.S., with only about 200 courts across the country, and mostly at private residences.

The sport started in Mexico in the late 1960s and grew in popularity in Spain in the 1980s. It is now exploding across Europe, the Middle East and other regions of the world. It is the second most-played sport in Spain, behind only soccer.

Padel is typically played in doubles on an enclosed court slightly smaller than a doubles tennis court. Although it shares the same scoring system as tennis, the rules, strokes, and technique are different, and the balls used are similar but with a little less pressure.

The main differences between the two sports are that padel courts have walls and the balls can be played off them in a similar way as in the game of squash, and that solid, stringless bats are used.

The height of the ball being served must be at or below the waist level, as well.

Ryan Redondo, former Pacific director of tennis and men's head coach, is now the CEO of Taktika Padel, the leading padel operator in the Western U.S.

He said the Pacific partnership is central to the company's plan to open 200 publicly accessible padel courts on the West Coast within the next two years.

"Central to our vision has been to develop padel among young people and introduce the sport into the college system in the U.S.," Redondo said. "This unique Pacific partnership provides us the springboard to do just that, and to embrace the popularity pickleball has already had in the United States with the popularity padel has had overseas. Our partnership with the University of the Pacific is an American first, and I'm confident will pave the way for other college campuses to embrace these two insurgent racket sports as they gain popularity across our country."

Under the partnership, Taktika Padel will construct, operate and maintain the new complex.

Pacific students, faculty and staff will have free daily access from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. to midnight. They will also be able to reserve courts during the day at a discounted price.

The university will receive a portion of Taktika Padel's gross revenue from the complex.

Pickleball and padel tournaments will be featured Oct. 14 at Pacific's Homecoming and Family Weekend. The university also has plans to start a pickleball club team and intramurals with both sports.

The Pacific venue would be only the fourth public padel courts in California and the first in Northern California, according to SimplePadel.com.

The revenue share from the Taktika Padel partnership will help support and grow Pacific's men's and women's tennis programs, officials said.

"The addition of the padel and pickleball complex is a game-changer for our tennis programs,"

Pacific women's tennis head coach Mike Erwin said. "Having access to these fun, exciting and easy to learn sports on campus also will have a tremendous impact on Pacific as a whole. Increases in fundraising, student and community engagement and attendance at home contests are all expected outcomes of creating this racket sports eco-system."

"Being able to work with President Callahan to make this concept a reality has been a valuable opportunity," he added. "I believe, together with our partners at Taktika, we've blazed a trail that other institutions will follow."

Taktika opened its first padel courts, inside the award-winning Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, in 2021 and earlier this year opened a second padel venue south of Los Angeles at Dignity Sports Health Park, home of the LA Galaxy of Major League Soccer.

Gabriel Perez Krieb, chairman and co-founder of Taktika Padel, said the U.S. is expected to have 30,000 courts and 10 million players by the end of the decade. He said padel may be an Olympic sport by the Brisbane summer games in 2032.

"Our driving force at Taktika Padel is the opportunity to grow and develop this support up the

Pacific Coast and across the Western U.S. for communities that will, on the whole, be witnessing padel for the first time," Krieb said. "We are delighted by the vision and ambition of Pacific to see the potential power of these two sports combined on one campus and hope it will prove a model to be rolled out at other universities in the years ahead."