Padel, a racquet game popularized in Mexico, is described as a mix of tennis and squash. The sport is sufficiently prevalent in South America that when Matias “Mati” Gandulfo arrived in the United States from Argentina 10 years ago on a soccer scholarship, he was surprised it wasn’t a “thing” here.
Gandulfo and Lucas “Luca” Tepman first met at a barbeque when, as per the male social norm, Tepman went to help Gandulfo, who was cooking at the grill alone. They became friends, intermittently discussing the concept of opening a Padel club in America. The idea was actualized after the pandemic, when Tepman called Gandulfo at 1 a.m. and again brought up opening a facility.
“I have experience in business strategy and when Mati mentioned opening a Padel club in the U.S., I didn’t think it was the best idea for business at the time,” said Tepman. “However, after the pandemic, people were going crazy about Padel in South America and Europe. I started hearing from fellow entrepreneurs in South America that were starting Padel clubs. Classes started becoming more popular on social media. I saw a venture firm open exclusively for Padel in the U.S., and that definitely sparked my interest. That’s when I started doing more research and saw the opportunity to do it in the U.S. Also, we are Latin, and are very social. We always felt that the Bay Area was missing that. Building that community was just for ourselves really but we’ve been hearing from a lot of people how this has changed their experience and improved their quality of life.”
Gandulfo and Tepman co-founded Bay Padel in September 2023 at the Hall of Transportation on Treasure Island, a structure that was built for the 1939-40 Golden Gate International Exposition. They’d had difficulty finding a Bay Area location with ample space for courts, high ceilings, and adequate parking. The Treasure Island building, reminiscent of an open industrial and rustic warehouse with high ceilings and visible support columns, possessed the necessary bones.
Bay Padel occupies half the edifice, with an option to expand to the rest. The club features four Padel and four pickleball courts, along with table tennis and bocce ball.
The space… “invites people to get together and hang out,” said Gandulfo. “It’s really rewarding to see and hear from people that they love this place and that they feel like they belong somewhere, and the community is building, which is really great.”
The club has an eclectic array of seating, with couches facing various directions towards the courts or a big-screen television, tables for discussion-style meetings, music playing pop hits, an indoor food truck with tacos and empanadas, and a mini art gallery commemorating the sport of Padel.
“I signed up in October, it was when the place just opened up,” recalled Aveen Alkhatib. “I’d never played Padel before and there was a WhatsApp group that they started so it was a really easy way to find people. It’s a very welcoming place, and I found a really great group of women to play with, so I try to come once a week. We usually do cardio padel in the morning and play for an hour and a half after that. It’s a good workout and it’s good for socializing as well. And that’s part of why I signed up, I was hoping to meet people that are kind of active and have a similar mindset. It helps especially midweek to move, socialize, and get away from your day-to-day job since I’m mostly working from home sitting in front of my computer. The views are beautiful too, and it’s just a fun place to be.”
Upwards of 20 youth are enrolled in individual or group clinics, with summer camps offered. High and middle schools on Treasure Island are given space and coaches to train.
“We really envision Bay Padel being a great academy that will develop athletes that will compete in the future,” mentioned Tepman. “We are trying to really focus and trying to bring the best coaches we can find and focus on kids so they can start playing now and have as much experience as they can. We want to become one of the academies that bring people to the Olympics. We also had our first competitive team playing professionally in Mexico recently.”
Bay Padel’s sports director and head coach, Marcel Felder, is a professional tennis player from Uruguay and was ranked in the top 100 in the Association of Tennis Professionals in Doubles. He won various awards in the sport, including a gold medal at the Maccabiah Games in Israel in 2013.
“We have a lot of clinics or events, so people have options to choose what’s best for them on any specific day,” said Felder. “We have Open Plays where you can sign up and play in rotation with different players, we have Cardio Padel and clinics where we drill on different shots. We started a league also on the weekends and we do tournaments once a month. We have music all the time, and food trucks coming in. The idea is to have a fun place with good vibes, I think it’s fun to just be here in the club.”
Bay Padel occupies Pier 70, Historic Building 12, a football-field-sized former ship fabrication space. Building 12 houses an eclectic mix of publicly accessible maker spaces, local artisan and neighborhood serving retail, commercial offices and event space.
“Bay Padel adds another exciting and creative dimension to the site. A great mix of businesses and organizations will bring to life Building 12’s vision as a platform that melds Dogpatch’s creative ethos with the site’s manufacturing history,” said Tim Bacon, Brookfield Properties Senior Director of Development. “The same building that once was home to the production and fabrication of steel plates for ships’ hulls, will now be an inclusive home to a new generation of making, industry and innovation.”
Pier 70 will feature two Padel courts, fitness room, outdoor lounge and coworking area, locker rooms with a restroom and shower, reception, warm-up area, and pro-shop.
“Pier 70 location is more of a boutique concept, more high-end line of things,” said Tepman. “There’s easy access for a broad audience of enthusiasts. The historic location and views offer a stunning backdrop, making it an ideal setting for hosting major padel competitions. Building 12’s extraordinary dimensions, with its towering heights, create a unique and exciting environment for players and spectators alike. With brewers, bakers and artists coming to the site, we’re adding athletic artistry to the location. It will be a great place to spend the day.”
“It also fits very well into the idea behind our company of matching art with building community and space with this sport,” emphasized Gandulfo. “At some point our business model changed to grow quickly. We knew it would get big in the US. We are planning to open around 20 clubs in the next three to four years and we are continuously looking for places around the Bay Area.”
“We’re looking at Marin County right now, San Jose, Sunnyvale area, East Bay, and even Canada,” remarked Tepman. “Within the next nine months these will be open. We’re also partnering with local tennis club owners that want to open Padel so we are giving them the platform to open Bay Padel clubs around the area.”
Photo (top): Pier 70’s Historic Building 12 hosts events inside and out, such as Roll with Us, a free day of skating and music. Photo courtesy of Brookfield Properties
Mark Steensland 
Jessica Zimmer 
Thomas Hunter II