THE UNIVERSITY OF THE PACIFIC officials said this week that a pickleball and padel complex, the first of its kind on an American college campus, is set to be built at their Stockton location by the fall.
According to a press release from the college last week, pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the U.S., with participants nearly doubling in a year among younger adults and seniors.
However, padel, a sport that started in Mexico in the late 1960s and grew in popularity in Spain and has now expanded across Europe, the Middle East, and other regions, remains not too known in the U.S.
UOP partnered with San Diego-based Taktika Padel for the complex and said there will be eight courts for pickleball and four for padel equipped with lights and video cameras for live-streaming.
The complex will be located just north of UOP’s Eve Zimmerman Tennis Center.
“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,” Christopher Callahan, president of UOP, said in a statement Aug. 28.
Taktika Padel plans to open 200 publicly accessible padel courts on the West Coast within the next two years.
After the complex is built and open, students, staff, and faculty will have free access daily from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. to midnight, as well as the ability to reserve courts during the day at a discounted price.