Victoria Opens Vancouver Island’s Largest Dedicated Pickleball Hub

Topaz Park now gives Victoria something the island has needed for a while: a true, dedicated pickleball home with enough scale to matter. The new hub opened on May 8 with 11 courts, permanent nets, fencing, a shade structure and lighting for evening play, making it Vancouver Island’s largest dedicated pickleball facility.

That matters because this is not a single-purpose patch job squeezed into a corner of a park. The city built the hub as part of phase two of the Topaz Park improvements, a phase that was expected to wrap in early 2026 and was budgeted at $4.5 million. Victoria approved the broader 10-year Topaz Park Improvement Plan in June 2018 after extensive community engagement, and the pickleball courts were designed with input from the Victoria Regional Pickleball Association.

For regular players, the payoff is simple: more court availability and less time waiting around with a paddle in hand. Victoria already has 10 other pickleball courts at Beacon Hill Park, Central Park, Oaklands Park and Barnard Park, but Topaz Park raises the ceiling for drop-in play, organized ladders and larger groups. The permanent nets and lighting also make the new site more usable than the improvised setups players often get stuck with elsewhere.

Roger Graves, president of the Victoria Regional Pickleball Association, said the community was tremendously excited to see the facility open and called it a fantastic addition for local players. That is the right read. The people who will feel this first are the recreational and intermediate players who want a reliable outdoor run, plus the visiting groups that need a place with enough courts to keep a weekend session moving.

The rest of the park strengthens that case. Along with the courts, the broader Topaz Park work includes improved pathways, an outdoor fitness area, a youth gathering space, a misting station and accessible seating. The youth area was designed with input from the City of Victoria Youth Council, giving the park a bigger role than just a sports box with lines painted on asphalt.

Topaz Park has been evolving for years. The first phase brought in a full-size turf soccer pitch, a youth-size multi-purpose field, a softball diamond and spectator seating, and a skate and bike park was added in 2022. The pickleball hub is the latest step in that rebuild, not an isolated add-on.

For pickleball travelers, that is the real story. Victoria is no longer just a city with a few scattered courts. With 11 dedicated courts under lights, a growing municipal network and a park built for more than one kind of user, it starts to look like a legitimate retreat stop, the kind of place where a weekend on Vancouver Island can be built around actual court time instead of hoping for it.