Huntsville opens John Hunt Park Recreation Center with 25 pickleball courts
Huntsville opened a $18.5 million pickleball-heavy recreation center, adding 25 covered, lighted courts and a new competitive home base inside John Hunt Park.
Huntsville gave pickleball players a new place to go on June 15, opening the John Hunt Park Recreation Center at 3035 Leeman Ferry Rd. The 60,850-square-foot facility sits on about 8.5 acres inside John Hunt Park and instantly changes the map for competitive amateurs looking for more than an overbooked gym slot or a handful of shared courts.
The main attraction is outside: a structure that covers and lights 24 competitive play pickleball courts and one elite play court. That kind of court count matters because it changes how events get staged and how often players can actually get on court. Instead of squeezing pickleball into a multipurpose setup, Huntsville built a venue with enough scale to support tournament play, open play and regular programming in the city’s Central Sports District.
City officials have been building toward this for years. Huntsville approved design services in October 2022, moved to a more detailed plan in May 2023 and initially outlined 16 outdoor lighted pickleball courts before the project expanded. By August 2024, the city was describing an $18.5 million build with 25 covered, lighted exterior pickleball courts, and ground broke in October 2024 before the June opening.
Mayor Tommy Battle led the ribbon-cutting and framed the center as a quality-of-life investment and a northern anchor for the park. Council Member Bill Kling called the center a valuable addition that will enrich John Hunt Park and reflect advocacy for residents across the city. Those comments fit the scale of the project: this is not a small neighborhood add-on, but a major public facility dropped into what the city calls its largest park.
That park matters, too. John Hunt Park spans nearly 450 acres and has long functioned as Huntsville’s “Central Park,” with soccer, sand volleyball, cross-country, tennis, ice skating, mountain biking and ball fields already on site. The new recreation center strengthens that setup by giving the park a dedicated indoor-outdoor anchor for year-round play.
The building adds more than pickleball. Its gymnasium can be configured for four high school regulation basketball courts or eight high school regulation volleyball courts, and it also includes a fitness room, multipurpose rooms, office space and concessions. Designed by William M. Boehm & Associates and built by Fite Building Company, the center gives Huntsville a facility that can absorb more play now and host bigger amateur events later.
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