Lakewood Ranch nears long-awaited pickleball courts at Premier Sports Campus North

Twenty-four pickleball courts, 14 of them covered, are the clearest sign that Premier Sports Campus North is moving from promise to playable reality. The shaded court structure behind the new pools was down to paint work, a small finish on a project that has been years in the making for Lakewood Ranch players who have wanted dedicated space of their own.

The pickleball buildout is part of a larger 44.2 million-dollar Athletics & Aquatics Center that will cover 44,000 square feet. Manatee County’s plan calls for a competition-sized swimming pool, a therapy pool, locker rooms, restrooms and a geothermal yard, along with walking trails and parking for about 166 vehicles. County leaders have said the campus is meant to do more than serve one sport. It is being built to pull together recreation, tournaments and everyday use for players from youth levels through adults.

That scale helps explain why the pickleball piece has drawn so much attention. Bob Haskin began pushing for a public courts project in 2018, when the Lakewood Ranch Pickleball Club had about 170 members. By January 2026, the club had grown to 2,300 members, a jump that shows how far demand has outgrown the old court supply. Manatee County also spent about 250,000 dollars renovating the courts at Lakewood Ranch Park in 2024, another sign that the pressure for more places to play has not been a one-off complaint but a steady theme.

Premier itself has been part of Manatee County’s sports identity since 2011, when the field complex became a fixture for tournaments and sports tourism. The county’s 2017 purchase of 127 acres from Schroeder-Manatee Ranch set the stage for what is now Premier Sports Campus South, while the North campus is being shaped into the next chapter. County records say the construction contract with Tandem Construction was capped at 44,228,316.60 dollars and scheduled for 567 calendar days.

The county’s broader east-county message also ties in the second-floor buildout of the Lakewood Ranch Library and the future sheriff’s office substation on the property. Together, those pieces show a campus that is no longer just about fields and courts. For pickleball players, the headline is simpler: Lakewood Ranch is finally close to getting the kind of court capacity that matches the sport’s growth.