On Friday, February 23rd the first-ever pickleball and padel complex on a U.S. college campus will open at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California thanks to visionaries behind Taktika Padel.
University officials will host a news conference, ribbon-cutting, and grand opening at 10:30 a.m. Friday at the new facility located just north of the Eve Zimmerman Tennis Center on the Stockton Campus.
The courts will be open after the ceremony for the public to play pickleball, free of charge, and to watch the 2024 Chosen Foods Circuit Stockton Tournament, the first United States Padel Association (USPA) tournament to ever be held in Northern California.
The first-of-its-kind facility will feature eight pickleball courts (which can be reserved starting Saturday) and four padel courts (which can be reserved starting Monday).
A release from the University notes that community members can reserve courts during the day using the Playbypoint app. Meanwhile, students, faculty, and staff will have exclusive, free access daily from 6 to 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Of the history-making partnership, University of the Pacific President Christopher Callahan said: “We are thrilled about the partnership between Pacific and Gabriel Perez Krieb, a brilliant and innovative thinker and collaborator who brought this idea to us less than a year ago.
The new complex will benefit our students and campus community while serving the insatiable desire for more pickleball facilities across our region and bringing the exciting sport of padel to all.”
Krieb, the chairman and co-founder of Taktika Padel and executive chairman of Chosen Foods, responded: “This project will go in the record books as the first university in the world with dedicated tennis, padel, and pickleball facilities. We are honored to partner with the University of the Pacific and President Callahan.
More importantly, we want to partner with communities that love racket sports and we believe the city of Stockton and the Central Valley of California are going to thrive with this beautiful facility.”
Ryan Redondo, CEO of Taktika Padel, which is the leading padel operator in the Western U.S., 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.
“Since Taktika’s inception, we have said that our driving motivation is to bring padel to as many different communities as possible so that everyone has the opportunity to experience this exhilarating sport for themselves,” Redondo said.
He then added, “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 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.”
