Tijuana’s municipal government launched free summer sports camps on Monday, June 16, offering programs in 12 disciplines across the city. The camps, which run through August 8, aim to enroll roughly 10,000 children and teenagers during the school break.
Tijuana Summer Camps Cover 12 Sports Across 38 Locations
The program operates at 38 municipal sports facilities, or unidades deportivas, spread across Tijuana’s urban footprint. Children ages 6 to 15 can register for classes in swimming, basketball, soccer, volleyball, boxing, taekwondo, weightlifting, wrestling, athletics, tennis, archery, and artistic gymnastics. Each camp session runs Monday through Friday, with schedules varying by location.
Tijuana’s municipal sports commission, IMDET (Instituto Municipal del Deporte de Tijuana), coordinates the camps. IMDET Director Iván de Jesús López Cárdenas announced the program and confirmed that registration is open at each participating facility. Parents can sign up children directly at their nearest unidad deportiva during operating hours.
The city has run similar summer programs in previous years, but this edition is the largest in recent memory. López Cárdenas said the 10,000 enrollment target represents an increase over prior summers. The expanded capacity comes from opening more facilities to the program and adding disciplines like archery and artistic gymnastics, which were not always included.
Tijuana’s population of roughly 2.2 million includes a large youth demographic. The city’s colonias often lack safe, supervised recreational options during the two-month summer break, when temperatures in the inland valleys can reach the upper 90s Fahrenheit. Free programming at public sports facilities fills a gap that private camps, which can cost $2,000 to $5,000 pesos ($110 to $275 USD) per week, leave open for working families.
Locations Include Facilities Near Expat Neighborhoods
Several of the 38 participating unidades deportivas sit in or near areas with English-speaking populations. The Unidad Deportiva Reforma, close to the Zona Río commercial district, and facilities near Playas de Tijuana are among the locations offering camps. Bilingual families living in these corridors can register children at the nearest site without advance paperwork beyond basic identification.
The camps are structured as introductory programs, not competitive training. IMDET staff and volunteer coaches lead sessions that focus on fundamentals and physical activity. For families with children who show aptitude, IMDET’s year-round programs at the same facilities offer more structured development paths in sports like boxing and taekwondo, where Tijuana has produced national-level competitors.
Swimming classes tend to fill fastest, according to IMDET staff, because only a handful of the 38 facilities have pools. Parents interested in swimming enrollment should register early. The tennis and archery programs also have limited capacity due to equipment constraints.
Transportation to and from the facilities is the responsibility of parents. Most unidades deportivas are accessible by Tijuana’s public transit routes, though families in eastern colonias like Valle de las Palmas face longer commutes to reach facilities with full programming.
Summer Programs Part of Broader Youth Safety Strategy
Municipal officials have framed the camps as part of Tijuana’s effort to keep young people engaged during the break. Mayor Ismael Burgueño Ruiz’s administration has linked youth sports programming to its public safety platform, which emphasizes prevention alongside policing. The logic is straightforward: supervised activity during daytime hours reduces the window for recruitment by criminal groups that target idle teenagers in marginalized neighborhoods.
Tijuana allocated roughly $45 million pesos ($2.5 million USD) to IMDET’s 2025 operating budget, which covers year-round programming and facility maintenance along with the summer camps. That figure has grown modestly from prior years but remains small relative to the city’s overall public safety spending, which exceeds $2 billion pesos ($110 million USD) annually.
The camps also serve as a talent pipeline. IMDET has historically used summer enrollment surges to identify young athletes for its competitive programs. Several boxers and wrestlers who represented Baja California at national events in recent years first entered the sport through summer camps.
Registration remains open at all 38 facilities through the duration of the program. Parents need to bring a birth certificate or school ID for the child and a photo ID for themselves. The camps run through August 8, with no sessions on federal holidays. This story was first reported by El Sol de Tijuana.