Bay Minette opens three new pickleball courts at Kids Park

Bay Minette has added three regulation-sized outdoor pickleball courts at Kids Park, giving casual players more places to play and more flexibility now that fencing and lighting make evening games possible. For a small city where pickup play often has to fit around work, school and heat, that is a meaningful shift in access.

City leaders marked the opening with a ribbon-cutting on April 14 at Community Kids Park, where the new courts sit at the corner of McMillan Avenue and Third Street, next to the splash pad. Recreation Director Blake Clark said the project was meant to help people of all ages get active and spend time together, and the new buildout gives Bay Minette a more complete outdoor option for the sport.

The courts did not come together through city funding alone. Support came from the Betty Mitchell Foundation, the Wills family and proceeds from the Ladies Night Out event, a mix that shows how pickleball has become part of the city’s community giving as well as its parks planning. Mayor Joshua Brown was among the city leaders tied to the broader push for Kids Park improvements, which have been estimated at about $500,000.

The new outdoor courts also add to a network that already includes indoor play. Bay Minette’s recreation page says the city has two indoor pickleball courts at the Douglasville School of Arts & Recreation on Shedrick Hardy Parkway, and weekly Pickleball Socials are held every Monday at no charge. Those socials move between indoor and outdoor courts depending on weather, which gives beginners and regulars a place to keep playing when conditions change.

That layered setup matters in a town where the courts are becoming part of the normal recreation menu rather than a one-off attraction. Kids Park itself has long been a civic fixture. WKRG reported that volunteers built the park in 2000, and that it now sits on a full city block with tennis courts, pickleball courts, a pavilion, restroom facilities, picnic tables and a seasonal splash pad.

The city’s recent move to seek GOMESA grant funding for further Kids Park work suggests the pickleball expansion may be part of something larger. With outdoor courts, indoor backup space and free weekly socials, Bay Minette is building the kind of local playing culture that can hold onto new players after the first wave of excitement passes.