Moab’s First Dedicated Pickleball Courts Are Opening After a Three-Year Fight Over Where to Build Them
- Moab’s first dedicated pickleball courts, eight in total, are set to open at the Old Spanish Trail Arena after a three-year process that started when a planned location at Old City Park drew objections over noise.
- The new courts will end years of players splitting time between the Center Street Gym and the tennis courts at Grand County High School, and lights will let games continue after sunset.
- National pickleball participation hit an estimated 19.8 million players in 2024, a jump of more than 300 percent over three years, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association’s 2024 Topline Participation Report.
A Small Desert Town Finally Builds a Home Court
For years, the pickleball players of Moab, Utah, made do with whatever gym or tennis court they could book. A rotating group played three or four days a week at the Center Street Gym or wherever else in town had open lines painted on the floor. Now the town is building them a permanent home: eight dedicated courts at the Old Spanish Trail Arena, the area’s first facility built specifically for the sport.
“Pickleball started as a smaller grassroots local group that would play three or four days a week,” said Patrick Trim, Moab City recreation director. “We saw that group grow, and the interest in getting some outdoor courts built took shape.”
Getting there took three years and a change of address. The city had originally identified two potential sites, Old City Park and Swanny Park, when the idea of building dedicated pickleball courts first came up. Neighbors and townspeople pushed back hard against both, worried the sport’s sharp, repetitive pop would disturb parks they saw as historic and quiet. The pushback killed the Old City Park plan in 2023, sending the project to the Old Spanish Trail Arena instead, where the nonprofit Friends of Moab Pickleball had to restart the funding process from scratch.
“When we lost the Old City Park location in 2023, we immediately applied for a grant at the Old Spanish Trail Arena,” said Patty Jones, president of Friends of Moab Pickleball. “The grant was originally through the city, but it was then transferred to the county and took another two years to be funded.”
Trim said the city needed to see real, sustained demand before committing resources to a new sport. “New programs don’t always capture everyone’s interest, and we want to reach a broad group,” he said. “Until we see the excitement and community demand, it’s hard to get new programs off the ground. We saw pickleball continue to grow, and after 10 years, it’s clear it’s here to stay.”
Tourists Bring Their Paddles
Moab’s pickleball demand does not come only from residents. Chad Gregory, who started the Moab Pickleball Facebook Group, said out-of-state visitors regularly ask about court access and pickup games while they’re in town for the red rock scenery. The Facebook group has turned into a message board where travelers from out of state ask about courts and available players ahead of their planned trips to Moab.
“It’s great to have so many tourists visiting to expand the playing,” Gregory said. “In a town like Moab, it took so many years to get the ball rolling and keep it rolling. So many hang-ups. But once we got the green light, the only problem we had was that we should have built 16 versus eight. Regardless, it’s still going to be good, and I know we’ll see many happy tourists in town being able to take advantage of the new courts.”
Gregory and Jones both describe the sport in similar terms: simple, social and hard to walk away from once you start. “It’s a game that is silly and brings so much joy,” Gregory said. “I’ve heard our group specifically say pickleball has saved their life.”
Eight Courts, Lights and a List of Extras
The eight new courts sit near a playground under construction at the Old Spanish Trail Arena, which has pushed back the grand opening date. Once the ribbon is cut, lights will let players stay on the court well past sunset, adding hours of playing time the group never had at the Center Street Gym or the high school’s shared tennis courts.
The construction grants covered the courts themselves but not everything a working facility needs. Players are fundraising separately for paddle holders, wind screens and benches, items that fell outside the scope of the county funding.
Jones said the added space changes what the group can offer beyond open play. “We’ve had limited space to play and to welcome newcomers,” she said. “Our larger space allows us to bring in certified instructors, and we already have some lined up for lessons and clinics. We’re also planning to host beginner nights, as well as some year-round leagues.”
Part of a National Pattern
Moab’s path from backyard grassroots group to dedicated public courts mirrors what has played out in small towns and big cities across the country. Pickleball has been the fastest-growing sport in the United States for four consecutive years, with an estimated 19.8 million Americans playing in 2024, more than triple the number from three years earlier, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association’s 2024 Topline Participation Report.
That growth has forced towns of every size to figure out where the sport fits: which parks can absorb the noise, which budgets can cover new construction, and how fast a grassroots group can turn casual interest into a funded facility. Moab’s answer took three years, two rejected park proposals and a grant that changed hands from city to county along the way. It is a smaller-scale version of a fight that has played out in resort towns and suburbs alike, where a sport built around a loud plastic ball keeps colliding with neighbors who got there first.
What Comes Next
For a group that has spent years splitting gym time and borrowing high school tennis courts, the wait is nearly over. The grand opening has no firm date yet, tied to the finish of the adjacent playground, but the courts themselves are built and lit. When they open, Moab will have gone from zero dedicated pickleball courts to eight, with instructors, leagues and beginner nights already planned for the space rather than added later once the courts prove themselves.
Jones and Gregory both point to the years of setbacks as proof of how much the local group wanted a permanent space, not just a way to pass the time. Between the grant delays, the switch from city to county funding and the loss of the original park site, the project outlasted plenty of players who might have given up on the sport entirely. Instead, the group kept booking gym slots and high school courts while it waited, and it is already planning leagues and lessons for a facility that has not opened its gates yet.
For visitors who have been showing up with paddles in their trunks hoping to find a pickup game, that means a fixed address instead of a Facebook thread and a bit of luck. For the players who fought for three years to get there, it means the wait is nearly over.
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