The mayor of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Carolina Dariasinaugurated this Friday the first municipal tracks of pickleball from the Canary Islands. This new infrastructure is located in the annex to the Carla Suárez tennis courts, within the López Socas Sports Complex. The initiative, promoted through the Municipal Institute for the Promotion of Physical Activity and Sports (IMD), seeks to respond to the growing demand for a discipline that combines elements of tennis, badminton and paddle tennis.
The action has had an investment of 60.000 euros for the creation of four fields that occupy an area of more than 700 square meters. For its construction, a specialized pavement called pickleball eco. During the visit to the facilities, Darias stressed that this project demonstrates the modernization of municipal services to meet the new interests of citizens in a modality that already has millions of practitioners internationally.
Promotion of racket sports
The Sports Councilor, Carla Campoamorexplained that the intervention arises from a direct request from the Canarian Tennis Federation. The main objective is to promote a sport that is progressively gaining followers and federative licenses on the islands. For his part, the president of the regional federation, José Juan Sepúlveda, described the opening as a necessary leap in quality for the development of this sport in the archipelago.
Pickleball, originally from the United States, is played on a small court with paddles and a perforated ball. Although in the Canary Islands it is in the implementation phase, it already has seven clubs and approximately 200 licenses. People interested in using these new municipal courts can now make their reservations through the web platform of the Gran Canaria Tennis Federation.
Comprehensive improvement of the sports environment
The intervention in the Ciudad Alta complex has not been limited to the new runways. The IMD has allocated close to 140.000 euros additional for the modernization of the Carla Suárez Runways. These improvements include the creation of a warehouse adapted for wheelchairs and sports equipment, as well as a general reorganization of common use spaces to optimize the performance of the facility.
In total, recent investment in this sports area exceeds 200.000 eurosalso contemplating the paving of the accesses and the creation of 40 parking spaces. Specific spaces have been set up for people with reduced mobility and motorcycles, in addition to repairing the perimeter walls and facades. The municipal government has invested more than 1.4 million euros in recent years to consolidate López Socas as a benchmark for local sports.
