San Carlos Pickleball Assoc. Needs Your Support

The San Carlos Pickleball Association is building a world-class 14-court pickleball facility located on the Sea of Cortez in Sonora, Mexico, that will be the biggest and best pickleball complex in Latin America. An unbelievable opportunity has presented itself, but we need your help to make this dream a reality. Aside from having a ton of fun and being a community hub, our goal is to be designated the Mexican National Pickleball Traning Facility supporting athletes of all generations.

The first pickleball court popped up in San Carlos in 2010, and by 2013 the founding members of the San Carlos Pickleball Association ran their first tournament using four different courts around town that had been built over the previous three years. The super fun and exceptionally well-run tournaments were such a success that by 2017 the club was ready to build its first pickleball complex. The opportunity to refurbish two old tennis courts was perfect for our budget. We turned the two old tennis courts into a six-court facility inside one of San Carloss' upcoming developments. Since the day Mirador courts opened, thousands of games have been played, and it has become a big part of the San Carlos Community. Having all the courts in one location was a significant upgrade, and in 2017 the Mirador courts hosted the largest Sombrero Showdown and the Amigos Cup to date, with over 200 players from the USA and Mexico! Not bad for a town of only about 5000 residents.

However, as the homes in the development where the courts are located filled in, it became clear that very soon we would lose access to the courts that we built, and this year 2022, as the Home Owners Association of the Mirador development takes over, we lose our access to the Mirador courts. Over a year ago, anticipating losing the Mirador courts, The San Carlos Pickleball Association began looking for a new location to build a bigger facility that would comfortably handle the 300-plus members and ever-growing tournaments. We were able to find an excellent piece of land to buy, almost flat and on the less windy side of San Carlos.

San Carlos is a sleepy little beach bar-drinking town with a pickleball problem. A few hours south of Arizona, our small town is a Pickleball Oasis where the Sonoran Desert meets the Sea of Cortez. Almost everyone who comes to San Carlos falls in love with it. Scott and Susan Moore love it here, have hosted multiple clinics, and participated in the Sombrero showdown. Other pros have given clinics as well, including Helle Sparre. It's Irina Tereschenko's favorite kiteboarding destination. Even Ben Johns visited our small town and taught some pickleball.

After countless hours of hard work by hundreds of association volunteers, San Carlos has been transformed into a pickleball Mecca. The sport that has been so popular in the USA has infiltrated Mexico. Like in the USA and worldwide, the appeal of Pickleball to all ages has spurred an enormous growth spurt in Mexico. In the winter, the town is filled with Snow Birds who enjoy the temperate climate of Mexico. Most of the winter, the temperature is in the 70s and 80s. Perfect Pickleball weather. In the summer, when it's Hot Hot Hot, the younger Mexican generation still take to the courts, and their numbers are growing exponentially. Tournaments and Leagues are popping up all over Mexico, Chapala Jalisco, Los Barilles BCS, Hermosillo Sonora and many more locations.

Over the years, our club has grown from a few players to over 300 Annual Members. One of our favorite aspects of this growth is that the fastest-growing demographic of our club membership is young and Mexican. San Carlos is home to the top female players in all of Mexico, and they are continuously providing training sessions with other women and kids. This is wonderful for the development of our sport, the community, and for Mexico.

Taking advantage of the incredible momentum the association has generated over the past decade of pickleball in San Carlos, we generated 400,000 dollars through loans and donations from our local pickleball community. The San Carlos Pickleball Association is a Non-Profit organization registered in Arizona, so you can make a tax-deductible donation. We are a small community of only around 5000 permanent residents. After a heroic fundraising effort, the well ran dry on donations in our small town, so we are looking to you to help make our pickleball dreams come true. As you can imagine, this was not a small undertaking. Our project will cost roughly $600,000 when it is complete. We are 200K short of what we need to complete the courts. However, the project is moving forward. The contractors are here working. We are fortunate to have our best local builders, Sanchez Construction building the perimeter wall and preparing the land. The premier Court builders in all of Mexico, Proyectos Deportivos, out of Mexico City, are building the courts. The perimeter foundation is complete and the wall is going up fast. The final touches are being completed to perfectly level the land for the championship court #1. 6 courts have already been poured. Net posts are going in on 6 courts but they still need to be painted after the wall is finished.

We will have a decorative brick perimeter wall with black-coated chain link

fencing between each court. It will be quite elegant when finished. In addition, the courts will have lights that will extend the playing time in the hot summer months and year-round, allowing for larger tournaments.

We will need about $20,000 per week for the next ten weeks to finish the courts and perimeter wall. We are still actively looking for sponsors, but this level of funding is not so readily available in a small town.

We are asking the global pickleball community to find it in their hearts to donate whatever amount feels meaningful to our campaign. Any amount, no matter how small, will help our cause. It would also help us greatly if you forwarded this message to all your contacts on whatever social media platform you prefer. Please get in touch with us if you would like to donate a more significant amount. We have several court sponsorships and commemorative bricks of various levels that recognize the donations that went above and beyond to make this project a success. Think of how great it will be to come down to San Carlos for a couple of weeks in the dead of winter, escape the snow, play pickleball under blue skies and then drink a piña colada on the beach, basking in the glory of your Ernie ATP. That's the plan for this winter if all goes well. With the proper reach and support, I know we can complete this in time for the annual Sombrero Showdown and the Mexican Liga Pro Pickleball Tournament, which is scheduled for November 18-21. ¨If you build it, they will come.¨ Viva Mexico! Viva San Carlos Pickleball!