Huntingburg pickleball courts near completion, opening expected by late May

Huntingburg’s new pickleball courts at League Stadium are down to the finishing stretch, with asphalt already laid, net poles being installed and fencing work underway ahead of a late-May opening. For players waiting on more public court space, the build is moving from promise to playable.

The project is a meaningful addition because it is not just another line item on a park plan. Huntingburg approved an expanded court package with parking lot improvements for $69,375, a jump from the earlier $29,830 court-only estimate, which points to a site being built for real traffic, not a token amenity. The Huntingburg Parks and Recreation Board, which meets every third Monday at 4 p.m., had the pickleball project on its April 20 agenda as the city pushed the work through its final phase.

Three courts will not solve every wait-time problem on their own, but they should give the city a stronger base for open play, beginner sessions and small-group rec play. In a town where new sports facilities can quickly shape where people gather, even a modest court addition can shift the daily routine, especially if it is easy to get to and supported with parking.

The setting adds to the project’s value. League Stadium sits inside Huntingburg’s broader recreation network, which includes the 40-acre Huntingburg City Park with baseball and softball fields, tennis courts, a swimming pool, shelter houses, horseshoe pitches and playground equipment. League Stadium itself is no ordinary backdrop: built in 1894, renovated in the early 1990s, and known as the home of the Dubois County Bombers, it also served as a filming location for A League of Their Own and Soul of the Game. That visibility should help the courts draw attention beyond the core pickleball crowd.

The timing also fits a sport that keeps absorbing new public space nationwide. USA Pickleball said Pickleheads added more than 2,300 new locations in 2025, bringing the database to 18,258 places to play, while the national total of known courts reached 82,613. Against that backdrop, Huntingburg’s courts are a small project with a bigger meaning: another local test of whether pickleball’s growth can be matched by enough places to actually play it.