Roseburg celebrates new public pickleball courts with grand opening party

Roseburg will turn its newest pickleball asset into a full-on community party on Saturday, May 9, when the Umpqua Valley Tennis Center hosts an official grand opening with free play from noon to 4 p.m., plus a barbecue and beer-and-wine garden. The celebration will put a spotlight on the city’s new outdoor court complex, a $2.53 million rebuild that has already been unveiled once, at a ribbon-cutting on March 5, but now gets its public debut as a place to play, gather and stay awhile.

The project added eight tennis courts and 10 dedicated pickleball courts, along with new fencing, lighting, seating, an entryway and a security system. That mix matters in a town where the facility is described as the only outdoor public court complex in the Roseburg area. For local players, it means a reliable place to get games in without leaving town. For the city, it marks the kind of recreation investment that can start to look less like a local amenity and more like a destination piece.

The funding behind the build tells the story just as clearly as the concrete and chain link. Roseburg’s overhaul was paid for with a $750,000 state grant, $523,000 in city funds and $1.252 million in matching community funds. The city credited Parks and Recreation Program Manager Velorie “Val” Ligon with winning the grant, while the nonprofit Umpqua Valley Tennis Center helped lead the fundraising effort. That public-private blend is exactly the formula now showing up in communities trying to build durable pickleball infrastructure instead of temporary pop-up courts.

Early signs suggest the courts are already doing what they were built to do. Reports from the site said the new lighting has drawn full pickleball courts late into the evening, a strong indicator that Roseburg players were ready for more space as soon as it opened. The complex at 1201 NW Stewart Parkway also sits next to a program hub that already offers junior tennis, adult tennis, pickleball clinics and competitive play, which gives the site the kind of built-in activity schedule that can support amateur events and travel play.

That depth of use is tied to a longer local history. Umpqua Valley Tennis Center says the public facility began in 1959, when the Junior Chamber of Commerce helped build six outdoor courts in Stewart Park with heavy volunteer support. Around 1970, six more courts were added during the tennis boom. The new complex extends that legacy rather than replacing it, and Roseburg’s latest investment suggests the city sees pickleball not as a passing trend, but as part of the next chapter of public recreation in Douglas County.