Montville pickleball courts open, annual badge requirement is coming

Montville Township’s six lighted pickleball courts at the Metro Tract, 179 Changebridge Road, are already open to players, and a summer badge requirement is about to add a new layer of control at one of the area’s busiest public courts. The site opened with a ribbon-cutting on May 13, and township officials said on May 14 that the courts were open daily while the Recreation Department finished the badge access system.

For regular players, the day-to-day rules are unusually specific. The courts are open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. from March 1 through November 30. Courts 1 and 4 are set aside for advanced players, while Courts 2, 3, 5, and 6 are open to all levels. Montville’s open play runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday in two windows, with weekend sessions as well, and the paddle-rotation setup is built to keep games moving rather than letting a crowd linger.

Under that system, players place paddles in the rack by level, the first four paddles go on court, and games are played to 11 points by 2. After two consecutive games, players must leave the court. When the queue reaches eight paddles or more, all four players rotate off after each game, a rule meant to speed turnover when demand spikes.

The bigger change is coming with the Recreation Pickleball Season Pass Badge. Montville says every player will eventually need a valid annual badge to use the courts, and the badge is for the registered member only. It is non-transferable, and each member must use their own badge to open the gates when entering. Violations can lead to suspension or loss of court privileges. The courts are first-come, first-served unless they are reserved for events, tournaments, lessons or other organized activities permitted by Montville Recreation, and the township also bars unauthorized paid coaching, private leagues and tournaments without a permit.

That structure reflects how much the township has invested in the facility. Recreation minutes from January 2025 show Montville had $550,000 in capital and a $71,000 local recreation improvement grant for six pickleball courts, with Christopher Statille, P.A. secured for design and construction support. Coverage of the grand opening put the full project, including the walking trail, at $857,401. Montville had already been running adult beginner and intermediate open play, so the badge rollout is less a starting point than the town’s attempt to organize a fast-growing pickleball scene before summer traffic gets even heavier.