Bobby Riggs
Tennis Club
ORGANIC GROWTH WHERE THE
MOUNTAINS REACH THE SEA
O
n the outskirts of San Diego, in Encinitas, California, pickleball has
firmly rooted itself at the Bobby Riggs Tennis Club in a way that club
owner Steve Dawson can only describe as “organic.”
Dawson bought the historic club in June of 2013, when he said the
opportunity presented itself after a whole skyful of stars aligned just right for
him.
“A bunch of things fell into place with management and tennis teaching and
networking, and I was really happy they did,” he explains. “At the time, we had
very little commitment to pickleball. We didn’t have any members who played
the sport and I had never heard of it.”
Soon after he took over, a group of 15 to 20 people approached him, asking
if they could tape down lines on the tennis courts. Being a new business owner
looking to accommodate new members, Dawson agreed to give the pickleball
players time to play on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
“They would come out, tape up the courts, play their matches and then take
the tape away when they were done so we could have tennis the next morning,”
he says. “They’d come back in the afternoon and tape up again.”
Since those early days, Dawson notes that pickleball at the Bobby Riggs
Tennis Club has grown “100 times over,” and the club now not only boasts
four dedicated pickleball courts in addition to six tennis courts, but is also a
destination club for national events like the SoCal Classic and pickleball camps.
“Today, we get about 1,500 players instead of 15, but it progressed in stages,”
he says. “It took about two and a half years to grow like this and it’s still growing
and growing.”
After Dawson saw how serious the players were about the game, he decided
to put down dual-purpose lines on the tennis courts to give them something
more permanent. The only work they had to do to play was to change out the
nets. Next, he opened up Wednesday nights, adding to the weekend afternoon
playing times already in place.
“Because they no longer had to tape their own lines, it tripled in growth at
that time,” Dawson recalls. “Last May, we resurfaced our tennis courts and we
decided that it was time to put in permanent courts, so we’ll see what happens.”
Demographically, the Bobby Riggs Tennis Club now has pickleball players
ranging in age from 17 to 70. On weekday mornings, the average player age
is early to mid-50s, with a range from teenagers on up on the courts in the
evenings and on weekends. This fall, Dawson plans on adding a high school and
10-and-under programs to the club offerings.
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