Members fill the padel courts at Bay Padel on Treasure Island in San Francisco. Padel is a fast-growing racket sport that some are suggesting could eventually rival pickleball as a fad.
Jessica Christian/The Chronicle
Co-owners Lucas Tepman, left, and Matias Gandulfo stand near the entrance of Bay Padel on Treasure Island in San Francisco. Each played the game before moving to the United States.
Jessica Christian/The Chronicle
Treasure Island developer Chris Meany has long believed that if his company built the housing and infrastructure, the rest of the stuff that makes a neighborhood — culture and entertainment and community gathering places — would grow organically.
But even Meany couldn’t have predicted that the organic growth would include a 60,000-square-foot cathedral to a little-known but fast-growing sport that some say could knock pickleball off its perch of being the No. 1 alternative to tennis for racket sport enthusiasts.
In September, entrepreneurs Matias Gandulfo and Lucas Tepman, a pair of Argentine transplants, opened Bay Padel, a club dedicated to padel, a sport that has a huge following in South America and Europe, especially Spain, where there are roughly 20,000 courts. But it had yet to find that type of popularity in the Bay Area.
Article continues below this ad
The opening of the padel club comes as about 1,000 units of housing are under construction on Treasure Island and the adjacent Yerba Buena Island. The first of these, the 250-unit Isle House, will open in the middle of next year, with the rest to follow.
A group of friends play padel on an outdoor court overlooking the Bay Bridge at Bay Padel on Treasure Island in San Francisco.
Jessica Christian/The Chronicle
“What matters at the end of the day is, can we create, not just the homes and infrastructure, but a neighborhood that is consistent with and true to San Francisco,” Meany said.
The club is located at Hangar 3, the historic airplane hangar that, between 1990 and 2010, was used as sound stages for movies such as the Robin Williams sci-fi comedy “Flubber,” “The Matrix” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” Now, there are six padel courts — four inside and two outside — as well as a co-working space, gym, lounges, pro shop and art gallery. They are in the process of adding a restaurant. There will also be four pickleball courts.
The Treasure Island club is just the start for Bay Padel, which has raised $25.9 million from investors, according to public filings. A second club will open next spring in the Dogpatch, with plans for clubs in Sunnyvale, San Jose, Santa Cruz and New York.
Article continues below this ad
Like pickleball, padel is played on what looks like a shrunken tennis court. The ball resembles a tennis ball, but is slightly smaller and less pressurized. Each court has glass walls on all four sides, and the ball can be played off the wall, similar to racquetball or squash. The surface is thick turf hardened with compressed sand.
Members fill the padel courts at Bay Padel. Players can bounce the ball off of the clear walls.
Jessica Christian/The Chronicle
Gandulfo came to the United States to play college soccer and study engineering, while Tepman, who has worked in politics and as a venture capitalist and chief financial officer, came to study for a masters at UC Berkeley. They met at a barbecue in Oakland four years ago. Like other gatherings of Bay Area transplants from South America, the conversation quickly turned to padel, with both lamenting that there were no courts in the region.
“We both grew up playing every weekend — it was a family thing,” Gandulfo said.
But they found it was not easy to find suitable venues. The lob is a central part of the sport — so high ceilings are required. Padel also requires clear space — there can’t be a bunch of columns in the way. Many of the spaces they looked at in the southeast part of San Francisco were zoned for industrial uses and recreation was not allowed.
Article continues below this ad
They learned there were reasons why nobody had managed to open a padel club in the Bay Area.
The retail space at Bay Padel, where players can buy gear for padel.
Jessica Christian/The Chronicle
“If you talk to every player who comes here and ask them if they ever thought about opening a padel facility, every one of them will say ‘Yes,’ ” joked Tepman. “It turns out it’s not that easy — I wouldn’t recommend it.”
The first hire the duo made was Marcel Felder, a retired professional tennis player from Uruguay, who was put in charge of programming for both padel and pickleball. Felder also grew up playing padel in South America and watched the sport take off in the late ’80s and early ’90s, only to lose steam.
“A lot of courts opened up and business was not good,” he said. “There were too many courts and too few players.”
Article continues below this ad
Back then, the walls around the court were concrete, as was the surface. The hard surfaces were rough on the knees and the opaque walls made it impossible for spectators to watch the game. But, over time, the sport evolved. Glass walls replaced concrete while a composite of artificial turf and compacted sand became the go-to playing surface, which cut down the number of injuries.
Padel courts, like these at at Bay Padel on Treasure Island are surrounded by clear walls.
Jessica Christian/The Chronicle
The combination of glass walls and a gentler surface has changed the game, Felder said.
Scott Colebourne, treasurer of the United States Padel Association, said the number of padel clubs in the United States has doubled in the past year, from 35 to about 70. “There are literally clubs opening every other week,” he said. “Interest in the sport is exploding.”
The association has about 2,000 members who play tournaments and are on the national circuit.
Article continues below this ad
“I think it combines the best elements of both pickleball and tennis. It’s super social and easy to play, like pickleball,” Colebourne said. “However, it’s a little more athletic than pickleball, a little faster, and more of a workout.”
The costs associated with padel are higher than with pickleball, because it requires the glass box. Courts cost between $60,000 and $80,000 to build. Rates for a court can average about $35 per person per hour. Members at Bay Padel play for $25 and are entitled to some free play, yoga classes, clinics and other amenities.
A group of friends play padel on an outdoor court overlooking the Bay Bridge at Bay Padel on Treasure Island.
Jessica Christian/The Chronicle
Oakland resident Antonio Sierra, who is from Mexico and played college tennis at the University of Central Florida, said he was “the first one here when they opened the doors.”
“I’ve been wanting to play so bad for the longest time,” he said. “I’ve been watching my friends in Mexico play on Instagram and it was killing me that we had no place to play in the Bay Area.”
For Rodrigo Cruz, a Mexico City native who lives in Oakland, the Treasure Island location was fortuitous because he and his wife Janeen already work on the island. Their salsa company, Kuali, has a commissary kitchen there. “Oh man, I am obsessed with that game,” said Cruz. “Padel is taking over big time.”
He has been playing once or twice a week since it opened in September.
“The new plans for the island are fantastic. It’s beautiful, bro,” he said. “You can play outside and watch the bridge lit up at night. I’ve met people from all over the world — Spain, France, Argentina, Costa Rica.”
Gandulfo said he and his partners were unsure whether people would travel to Treasure Island to play. That hasn’t turned out to be a problem. Players come by bus, ferry, bike and car. About 50% are from the South Bay, and the rest from San Francisco and Oakland. They are starting to get players who live or work on the island.
The padel court doesn’t take up the entire hangar and Tepman and Gandulfo have discovered random rooms that look like they may have been painted for “Indiana Jones” scenes. There is also a large collection of stone sculptures from the 1939 and 1940 World’s Fair. The Bay Padel group plans to name the padel and pickleball courts after movies filmed there — including “Flubber.”
“Flubber is amazing,” said Tepman said, “One of my favorite movies.”
Reach J.K. Dineen: [email protected]
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source link
