Inaugural Spring 2026 Season To Be Preceded By "Preseason Friendlies"!
The inaugural Spring 2026 Season will begin Sunday, March 22, at Ocean View Park in Albany! The start of the spring season is being preceded by a series of preseason matches to be held the first three Sundays of March: 3/1, 3/8, and 3/15. Team signups for the preseason matches are open now on dailypb.com.
We are excited to announce that team signups for preseason matches preceding the inaugural East Bay Team Pickleball League Spring 2026 season are open now.
The season is planned to begin Sunday, March 22, with a 6-week regular season followed by divisional playoffs and championship events. Matches will be played at Ocean View Park in Albany and Castro Park in El Cerrito.
Preseason Friendlies Dates, Times, and Locations
- Sunday, March 1, 10am - 12:30pm, 12:30pm - 3pm, at Ocean View Park in Albany
- Sunday, March 8, 12:30pm - 3 pm, 3pm - 5:30pm, at Castro Park in El Cerrito
- Sunday, March 15, 10am - 12:30pm, 12:30pm - 3pm, at Ocean View Park in Albany
Preseason signups are open on dailypb.com. Team captains can complete the signup on behalf of their team.
The three preseason sessions feature three different gameplay formats that are being tested for the regular season.
The first group of team captains to step up made it known that the MLP game format -- one women's doubles match, one men's doubles match, and two mixed doubles matched, plus tiebreaker if needed -- wasn't enough games per person per match, so we are testing some different formats in the preseason that offer more games per person!
Game Formats for Preseason Friendlies
- Sunday, March 1: Best 2 out of 3
- Sunday, March 8: Double Doubles Plus Tiebreaker
- Sunday, March 15: Double Header
Best 2 out of 3
The Best 2 out of 3 format includes best 2 out of 3 women's doubles, best 2 out of 3, men's doubles, and best 2 out of 3 mixed doubles. If used in the regular season, the third game in each set would only be played of the teams tied 1-1 in the first two. But since it is possible that 3 games would have to be played in each set, the preseason match will include all 9 games irrespective of which team wins the first two. We are doing this to test whether 9 games can be completed in the 2.5 hour timeframe with a 15 minute time limit. More details available in the session signup description on dailypb.com.
Double Doubles Plus Tiebreaker
The Double Doubles Plus Tiebreaker format adds two more doubles matches to the regular MLP format. There would still be just one women's doubles game, one men's doubles game, but then four mixed doubles games. If these 6 regular games ended in a 3-3 tie, the Tiebreaker game would be played. The six regular games would be sideout scoring to 15, win by 2. The tiebreaker game has a different format:
- Rally scoring to 21
- Points 1-4: Women’s Doubles
- Points 5-8: Men’s Doubles
- Points 9-12: Mixed (team choice: female #1 or #2, male #1 or #2) Doubles
- Points 13-16: Mixed (opposite: female #1 or #2, male #1 or #2) Doubles
- Cycle repeats until one team scores 21