TAMPA, Fla. (WFTS) — The courts at Hillsborough College's Tejas Pradip Patel HCC Tennis Center are busy almost every day of the week. Tennis leagues fill the schedule from morning to night. Pickleball players pack in matches between sessions. College athletes practice under the Florida sun. For thousands of people across Tampa, this facility is not just a place to play. It is where they built their communities, made their friends, and found their routines.
But all of that is now in question.
Watch report from Jada Williams
Construction tied to the Tampa Bay Rays stadium development will reshape the Hillsborough College campus, and players say no one has told them what happens to the courts when that work begins. There is no plan in writing. There is no timeline. And for a community that depends on this facility more than most people realize, the uncertainty is already causing real disruption.
The development will tear down the entire campus, including the tennis courts, to make way for a new campus, Rays ballpark, and mixed-use buildings.
Pippin Gilbert, a tennis player who uses the complex, sent an email with detailed information about what the courts mean to the community, including how many people play there and how many courts are available. She said she felt compelled to speak out, even though it is not something she would normally do.
"I would never normally speak on camera, but this is something I'm very passionate about, and I can't let our community lose these incredible courts and the programming here," Gilbert said.
The numbers behind her concern are significant. According to the United States Tennis Association, 26% of all tennis in Hillsborough County is played at Hillsborough College. Ten area schools use the facility to compete. More than 100 adult USTA leagues call it home. The complex also hosts free clinics for athletes with disabilities on Fridays, programming for kids and seniors, junior programs, and private lessons. The Hillsborough College Lady Hawks, a three-time national championship tennis team, practice and compete there. According to an infographic shared by Gilbert, 1,200 people play tennis at the complex each week.
Gilbert said the courts are simply irreplaceable in their current form.
"There is literally no other court in Tampa that can accommodate our large groups," Gilbert said. "There's a place in St. Pete, there's something in Clearwater, nothing in Tampa, and all those facilities are full. Even the Sandra Freedman on Davis Islands is not accepting new leagues because they're full."
She also pointed out that the stakes go beyond recreational play.
"Almost every professional athlete gets their start in a public facility or a church field, and it's really important to have community centers that can accommodate people who are learning to fall in love with the sport," Gilbert said.
Allison Wipfli, who plays on multiple teams at the complex, said the situation feels like players are being left without options.
"There are going to be thousands of tennis players displaced," Wipfli said. "I mean, I don't know how many leagues, but there's no plan. In December we're just going to be out of luck."
Wipfli said finding alternative courts is not as simple as showing up somewhere new. Her league plays on clay, which limits where they can go.
"There's public courts, but a lot of them are hard, and my league will only play on clay courts. So that's an even bigger concern. We're 50 plus, we need to watch out for our knees, but the problem is there aren't any courts available unless we traveled like an hour plus, and that's just crazy," Wipfli said.
She said her team captain has already been trying to raise the alarm.
"She did send a nice email to the powers that be, and there are a couple of petitions out there. Not that we don't support the Rays moving here. That's going to be amazing. But if they could have something in place for us so that we're not just kind of thrown out there with nowhere, then if they could just think about that, even just think about it, just come to the table and talk about it," Wipfli said.
The timing makes it worse. December through March is peak tennis season in Florida, and players say losing the courts now means missing the best months of the year.
"December, January, February, and even into March are like the best times to play tennis. Summer is just scorching. So we're going to miss out on that peak weather," Wipfli said. "We'll figure it out, I suppose. But we need a little help too."
Cindy Swartz, who has played in the area for about 20 years, said the clay court issue will hit older players hardest.
"There's a lot of women in the 50-plus USTA teams that cannot play on hard court and can only play on clay. And there aren't any other clay courts around in Tampa," Swartz said.
She said the math simply does not work when it comes to absorbing more than 100 teams into facilities that are already at capacity.
"When this goes away, there's going to be multiple people that are not going to be able to have a team because other facilities already have their teams that they're supporting as is. They don't have room to add more teams," Swartz said.
For Swartz, the courts are also about health and staying active.
"That's my workout, my health. That's how I keep running around and doing what I like to do. And without that, then you're a couch potato," Swartz said.
Julia Van Diver has been playing at the complex for 15 years and has captained teams there for about five. She said the facility is unique in ways that go beyond just the number of courts.
"These are the only public clay courts aside from Davis Island, where there's just a handful of them and where there's only a limited number of players who can play out of there," Van Diver said. "There's 10 clay courts here. In Florida, that's super important because you want to be outside playing every day, and playing on clay allows you to do so."
She said the impact is hard to overstate.
"If you think that there's 100 teams and every team has almost 20 people, then you're talking about thousands of people who play out of here across a year," Van Diver said. "You'll have a league right now that has nine teams on it, and it's going to shrink down to six, and all those players are displaced and can't play anymore on Wednesday, on Thursday, on Friday, on Saturday. It means you literally can't play."
Van Diver also raised concerns about how the stadium deal came together and what it means for the broader community.
"If the city is thinking about what's good for the community and good for community building, when you're just supporting businesses, you're not supporting the people or the community," Van Diver said. "If it had gone to a voting referendum, people would not have supported it."
She said her ask is straightforward.
"Don't rip out our court facility until you've rebuilt the courts. Go next door at Lopez Park. You can't just build hard courts. You have to rebuild it as it was," Van Diver said.
She also spoke about what the courts mean for people new to Tampa.
"When you move to a new place, you always know you have friends and teams to join, and having racquet sports, tennis, or pickleball is the way that people get to become part of a community," Van Diver said. "All my friends are tennis players. That's the way I got to know people. But if you take a facility like this away, then there's zero opportunity for that. Harbor Island had a lot more courts. They closed. They made it a very expensive private club, and everything's become private in Tampa except for Davis Island. And Davis Island doesn't have enough memberships left. So this is the last one."
The concerns are not limited to tennis. Pickleball players say the complex offers something they cannot find anywhere else in the area.
Maggie McClintock, U.S. Team Pickleball League Tampa Bay captain, said the facility has been central to growing the sport in the region.
"What HCC has provided for us is so many courts and the availability to actually reserve them, which we cannot do through the city. We can't do that anywhere else. So we're forced either into private clubs or we can play here," McClintock said. "We've run 400 people through here during season. When we lose that, we can't find that anywhere else. It's completely unique to HCC."
McClintock said the demand has only grown since her league started using the facility.
"The size is what's really brought all of us together. It's expanded twice since we've been here in five years, so the demand is strong," McClintock said. "While there are a lot of new places, the new places might be cost prohibitive for some because most of them are indoors, and we love being outdoors. That's been our benefit of being here."
She said a promise was made early on that players would have somewhere to go.
"In one of the first community meetings with the Rays, this came up, and the promise was that we would have an alternative to go to," McClintock said. "Now that the stadium reality is here, which we completely support, we love the Rays, we want this to happen, but we need to have somewhere to go when this tears down."
The uncertainty has already stopped her from planning ahead.
"I'm not planning my next season. I've got a letter into Ken Babby to see what can you promise me so that I can proceed," McClintock said. "Everything's in limbo right now. It's not our ask for something that brings world-class play here. It'd be fabulous. We need courts to continue doing what we do, and we can do that a lot of places. But we need them to react and get a plan in place before they do anything here."
She also pointed to the Lady Hawks and Special Olympics participants as groups that need to be part of any solution.
"These are three-time national champions, and they're about to lose their court. I can't even imagine when you're a coach recruiting for a college, you go out and say, 'Hey, we've got this great stadium, and it's going to be really fun here in three years or four years, but in the meantime, they're going to be commuting to whatever,'" McClintock said. "We have Special Olympics that come here. Where are they going to go? It's the heart and soul of this community."
Even members of the college's tennis team are feeling the pressure. Mirthe de Bresser is a sophomore who moved from the Netherlands specifically to study and play tennis at Hillsborough College.
"Tennis is what brought me here because I'm from the Netherlands, and I had the opportunity here to study and play tennis in Florida," de Bresser said.
She described what the courts mean to her daily life as a student-athlete.
"It's amazing here. I love it here. I like to play here on a team with all these amazing girls, and we have such a good program. We go to school, and in the afternoon we have practice. We have beautiful blue courts here. The sun is always shining. We're always outside," de Bresser said. "It's like our home to play on. It feels good to be here."
The Tampa Bay Rays responded to a request for comment with a full statement:
"We appreciate hearing from members of the tennis community and understand their interests related to future court availability during construction. The tennis courts serve a wide range of users, and we recognize their value to the community. We are currently evaluating options and working to develop a plan that addresses all interests while balancing the needs of the overall project. As planning continues, we will provide updates when more information becomes available."
Hillsborough College also sent me a statement:
"Tennis has long been an important part of Hillsborough College, and we are proud to be home to a three-time NJCAA national championship program. For years, our tennis complex has provided opportunities for student-athletes and community members alike, and we recognize the important role public courts play in expanding access to the sport. As future development opportunities at the Dale Mabry Campus continue, the College remains committed to supporting its tennis program and working with community partners on future tennis facilities that serve both student-athletes and the community.”
Gilbert said the lack of a concrete commitment is what worries her most.
"The Rays CEO said that they would build a world-class tennis center here to replace these courts that they're taking, and we don't have anything in writing in the community benefits agreement," Gilbert said. "I'm worried that it's just going to go by the wayside, and our community center is going to be forgotten about."
She went to a CRA meeting to raise the issue publicly, something she had never done before.
Gilbert is also calling for a collaborative solution that brings all the key players to the table.
"I would really love for the city, the county, Hillsborough College, and even the Rays, and even possibly USTA Florida, to sit down at a table together and come up with an idea for a location for new courts and funding for new courts," Gilbert said. "We need a time frame for construction, and we need everybody to get together and come up with this plan. And we need it soon, so that when HCC Tennis closes, we have replacement courts right away while still planning a future facility that can grow with Tampa."
She suggested areas like Rowlett Park or Town N Country as possible locations, and said underused industrial or commercial land could potentially be converted into courts. She also floated a bigger vision for what a new facility could mean for the city.
"If we have enough courts, maybe we can have a Tampa Open, like the Miami Open or Cincinnati Open, and bring in some revenue from tourism and have Tampa continue to grow with professional sports," Gilbert said.
The infographic Gilbert shared lays out a vision for what a replacement facility could look like, including 34 tennis courts, 15 dedicated pickleball courts, 16 Har-Tru clay courts, 10 hard courts, and 6 covered courts. The infographic also cites a $145.9 million economic impact generated by tennis tournaments and events across Florida in 2023, according to USTA Florida's Economic Impact Report. It calls for the HCC Tennis Center to remain open through April so Tampa's middle and high school teams can complete their seasons, and for construction of a replacement facility to begin before the current one closes.
Gilbert has launched a petition with those demands.
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