The USA Pickleball Association (USAPA) has hit a home run for pickleball. And Indian Wells Tennis Garden has positioned themselves as the host of pickleball’s premier sanctioned tournament event.
I am certainly not the keeper of all the details of this new pickleball marriage, but here is what we know so far. It’s ALL GOOD.
This agreement is to host the USAPA National Pickleball Championships for the next FIVE years. Key word “FIVE”.
As soon as the word came out from the recently completed USAPA Ambassador’s retreat/conference, anyone who has ever visited, or Googled and looked at pictures of, the Indian Wells complex, began to scream and moan and groan about how the Tennis Garden has no “real” permanent pickleball courts.
Shame, shame, shame on those short sighted party poopers for trying to rain on the parade of the best deal the USAPA has ever made to promote and grow our sport to major status. Now before you start penning your blasting emails or comments, let’s think a little bit about what just happened.
The governing body of our sport just created a FIVE YEAR agreement with a $77 million dollar tennis/pickleball complex. The Indian Wells Tennis Garden has themselves listed on the USAPA Places to Play and this is how they list it:
The INDIAN WELLS TENNIS GARDEN is an international professional tennis and Pickleball venue owned by Mr. Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle Corporation. This 77 Million Dollar sports complex includes 29 world class courts and two tennis stadiums. Stadium One is the second largest tennis stadium in the world at 16,100 seats. Enjoy Pickleball under the lights each Wednesday night, 5:00pm to 8:00pm. Enter Gate 7 on Miles Avenue and check in at the pro shop.
Now, yes they have only been playing pickleball there for a short period of time and yes it has only been on temporary courts so far. But thinking that what the Tennis Garden looks like now, is what the Tennis Garden will look like in November is truly missing the point of why Indian Wells signed this agreement.
As you may have noticed in the Places To Play listing, Larry Ellison is the owner of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Coming from my personal background in Information Technology, I have known of, and been a fan of Larry Ellison for a long time. He is always listed in the top ten wealthiest Americans and yes he plays and enjoys the sport of pickleball.
So let’s talk about what really happened in this FIVE YEAR deal between USAPA and Indian Wells.
First, Larry Ellison purchased the Indian Wells Tennis Center and has paid ten’s of millions of dollars to make it into the world class tennis facility it is today. Each year it hosts the fifth largest tennis tournament in the world, the BNP Paribas tournament. But besides the Tennis Garden, Mr. Ellison also purchased $30 million dollars worth of land next to the Tennis Garden. This land is a grass parking lot at this point. Keep that in the back of your mind for the future. To read more about the transformation of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden from the time Larry Ellison purchased it, here is a great article.
So Larry Ellison is not known for doing things on a small scale.
Don’t think that associating his tennis complex with the USAPA Pickleball Nationals for the next five years will be any different than any other project he has tackled. Indian Wells would NOT be bringing in a pickleball event if it didn’t believe in making it first class.
So what will it take to transform Indian Wells Tennis Garden into a world class pickleball facility?????
The real answer is NOT MUCH.
Think for a moment how hard it is to transform a tennis court into 4 brand new pickleball courts.
IT IS EASY, EASY, EASY.
I and a couple of friends can finds a church parking lot, and in about 72 hours can dump 50 gallon of asphalt sealer on it, paint it, stripe it and bring in 6 commercial grade roller pickleball nets and have you playing on real courts. Am I exaggerating? Only a little because “I DON’T LIKE TO PAINT”. 🙂
The big point that I’m trying to make is that the Indian Wells Tennis Garden is a $77 million dollar complex with loads of resources at their disposal. Big tennis complexes resurface, repaint and rearrange courts as easily as you and I change shoes. They could have as many permanently striped pickleball courts ready to go as they want within weeks. I know they can convert a stadium court into a stunning Gold Medal Match court in very little time and at a mere drop in their operating expense bucket.
So remember, the Indian Wells facility and organization has five years to work with the USAPA.
I believe the only question is, will they choose to do all the 40+ pickleball courts needed to host a nationals this first year or do they do the permanent courts in in a graduated fashion. Those are details that we don’t have yet.
But I also believe that if some courts have tempy nets, they would be something like the heavy duty outdoor nets that are quickly becoming popular with larger outdoor tennis facilities around the country. The Douglas pickleball nets are very heavy duty, outdoor, tennis quality portable nets. They play just like a permanent net.
So I am extremely confident that year one will be a great show for pickleball.
Yes, I believe the USAPA has hit an absolute home run for the sport of pickleball. And yes, I believe the Indian Wells Tennis Garden has hit one too.
The 2018 USAPA Pickleball Nationals is set for November 2-12, 2018
Indian Wells Tennis Garden at
78-200 Miles Ave, Indian Wells, CA 92210
Hope to see you there in November,
Rocket
The Pickleball Rocks Team
Sounds wonderful! Excellent idea!
Brilliant to meet the need of the fastest growing sport in the nation. I am especially excited as we live in La Quinta most of the year, and are located 15 minutes from the The Indian Wells tennis Garden.
Thank you for the very exciting news. Rosa Lee Measures ????
That is phenomenal, Pickleball is unstoppable now and will continue to grow years to come.
We plan on being there next Nov.Frank and Margee
Awesome write up
It’s a fabulous facility which has expanded open play exponentially in a very short time. They resurface courts every year so it’s nothing for them to convert courts! They will make it first class and our Coachella Valley is gorgeous that time of year!
So excited to have nationals in our backyard ?
The arms on those nets are dangerous to walk or run into but excited about that venue.
Thank you to Palm Creek for their hard work the last three years, hosting. So much fun to watch Pickle ball grow!
Hope they don’t charge to much to go and watch at Indian Wells.
Thanks Pb Rocks Fam! I’ve been trying to get a schedule of events from the Usapa to no avail. The dates they posted, 2-12. Is for a longer period than in the past by 2 days.
Julie, as corporate sponsors, the USAPA is really good at keeping us in the loop for Nationals, but we haven’t been given the schedule of events yet. Stay tuned. We’ll get it out as soon as we hear.
Yay, couldn’t be any happier about this!!!! This is the perfect area for this! As long as the costs for fans and players stays affordable like the sport was set up to be. Tons of retirees and players here who will love this!!!
Elliott is a visionary n a pball player. I’m sure he sees the growth of pball vs tennis growth.
It will take money to do the conversions but the man has money.
No doubt it will be 1st Class. Been to Indian Wells n adjecent city is Palm Springs. Lots of restaurants n hotels. Those cities will the pball increase in revenue for all.
Hooray!Hooray! Moving ever forward!
Wow! It is an excellent choice for Nationals and will be a first class event I have no doubt! Looking forward to it myself!
Can’t wait! It will be awesome, and I hope to be playing there for the next five years ?
Love that place; think it could grow into a West Coast Pickleball Mecca. The desert is loaded with existing talent; additionally it’s 2-3 hrs from Phoenix and 2 hours from SoCal.
So no more at Palm Creek!!! That is sad!!
Always enjoyed going there. And Indian Wells is closer to home!!
I believe this will be a fantastic marriage! You can rest assured that as Pickleball continues to grow the sport will not go unnoticed. I have seen professional tennis players get excited about Pickleball and it doesn’t take long.
Larry Ellison is a class act and will never put the Nationals on sub standard courts. Have some patience.
How awesome is that! Go West young man, go West. For those of us lucky enough to have played at Indian Wells, I can say from experience it is without a doubt the most breathtaking facility around….and it’s in the West. This is definitely a game changer for all of pickleball.
What a fabulous venue for pickleball. I know how hard the pickleball board works to make this game grow. This is just the frosting on the cake of places to go and play. Thank you for all your hard work.
I can hardly wait.
Lola
No doubts , it is a very beautiful facility with a lot of potential , my only concern is that for us who live on the east coast has a bit of distance to travel to the west coast, and I am assuming the air fair is not cheap, why don’t the USAPA pick somewhere in the middle of the country that is more feasible for more players to get to it. Thanks for listening
Simply outstanding…thank you Larry Ellison!
Organized Pickleball is unaffordable for the masses. Just look at Florida a few $15 tickets sitting in the cheap seats. Thousands of dollars for the better seats. $500 coaching events. Who needs this?
Larry Ellison is all about the money and prestige, ie the America’s Cup 34, SF.
Yes this is great but the cost to play is now for the elite and it is a bad partnership to promote the sport to the everyday player.
USAPA just sole out!!
Sd day for the sport but from this will rise a new association for the everyday player.
Long live the elite!!
Two of my, and Jamie’s & Gene’s, girlfriends live almost within walking distance of Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
November . . . What do you think, Jamie and Gene?!!!!!
This sounds exciting, and the facilities look fabulous. My only comment is that I did not know where Indian Hills was until the end of your article where the address was given.
Sounds great. I visit every year at that time. Thanks Judy
Thanks Rodney for filling in so many of the blanks. Yes, this sounds great!
Went and played tonight great facility unmatched
What a great place to play 5 to 8 every Wednesday night pickleball has come a long ways this is a first class place to play and we have all levels of play come on out it’s for every one
I”ve heard the player numbers are growing quickly at Indian Wells. Keep up the good work.
Maybe Mr Ellison is a smart businessman and knows that the Olympics are coming to Los Angels in 2028 and wants to have a top notch Tennis and Pickleball facility ready for the games.
Pickelball Rocks