Denver's action followed a decision in Centennial to place a moratorium on new construction of pickleball courts within 500 feet of homes. Although Denver hasn't made a move to follow suit, Scott Gilmore, deputy executive director of Parks & Recreation, says that the department is considering how far pickleball needs to be from homes.
The Denver Department of Public Health & Environment is revising the city's noise ordinance, and at two meetings earlier this month, city officials asked residents to share their thoughts on how recreation, including pickleball, should play into the revision.
The future regulation of pickleball in Denver may be up in the air, but so is spring. And as the weather warms, there are still plenty of places to play the beloved sport in metro Denver, including other offerings from Denver Parks & Recreation.
Denver Parks and Recreation still has six parks with outdoor pickleball courts
While the game doesn't have a home at Congress Park anymore, the city has updated its Outdoor Pickleball Courts map to show that there are at least six parks in Denver where people can still get their pickle on: the Northfield Athletic Complex, Martin Luther King Jr. Park, Skyland Park, Huston Lake Park, Bear Valley Park, and Eisenhower Park.
The Facebook group Denver Pickleball United: Supporting Open Play and Community, which was once called the Congress Park Pickleball Club, has served as an online gathering place for people devoted to playing at those courts. Its 1,500 members are still meeting up at other places, with the page hosting chats for play at Huston Lake, MLK and Northfield to help members coordinate and return lost items to each other.
“We promote the equity and sharing of the limited resources of courts in the Denver Metro Area,” the group’s new description says.
According to comments on posts made by group member Hermann Li, there seems to be a large enough group at both MLK and Northfield for drop-in play — which is when a single person can head to the courts and find people to randomly link up with rather than needing to bring a group. That’s part of what members say made Congress Park so special.
Regardless, pickleball enthusiasts who don’t want to pay and are willing to share the courts with others can head to any of those six parks to catch a game. Alternately, they can check out the city’s list of indoor pickleball courts to discover one of the nearly twenty recreation centers where pickleball is an option.
Just don’t head to Eisenhower Park for an early-morning game before work.
“Due to noise considerations of nearby neighbors, pickleball play at Eisenhower Park is allowed between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. only,” warns the Denver Parks & Recreation pickleball page.
And definitely don’t try to play pickleball on tennis courts in Denver parks: According to Parks & Recreation rules, using any sports court for a sport other than the one for which it is designed is not allowed.
When the department decided to close the Congress Park courts, Gilmore told Westword it would begin to enforce that rule more strictly.
Gates Tennis Center is available and near the closed Congress Park courts
Gates Tennis Center, located at 3300 East Bayaud Avenue, is at the intersection of public and private, with the City of Denver leasing the large swath of land in Cherry Creek that Gates sits on.
Over the past few years, Gates has been bolstering its pickleball offerings: hiring pro coaches, offering equipment rentals and providing time for both structured and open play. This was particularly spurred by a desire to give the community more space to engage in healthy activities during the pandemic.
Gates Tennis Center took home Westword’s 2023 Readers' Choice award for Best Place to Play Pickleball.
“The above changes were based on multiple community and statistical factors,” Gates wrote at the time. “GTC continues to strive for the optimal balance to become a great community partner and home to both sports.”
The center is still taking steps in that direction, debuting a new Pickleball Top Dog program that's scheduled to begin in May. The program is a coed doubles pickleball league that will last for nine weeks and be “friendly-competitive," according to promotional fliers. It will run through November, with three nine-week sessions that will have players rotating against each other based on how many points and games they win over the nine weeks.
Sign up for court time, group and private lessons, and other special events on the Gates Tennis Center pickleball page.
Pickleball Food Pub in Westminster is open seven days a week
Pickleball lovers can book courts by the hour at Pickleball Food Pub in Westminster.
Sam Brown, a pickleball player in his eighties, opened Pickleball Food Pub in January 2022; later that year, it won a Westword Best of Denver award for Best Place to Play Pickleball Indoors.
The facility, located at 7647 West 88th Avenue, has eight indoor courts and a full bar, providing hours of entertainment. Although the name has "Food" in it, there’s actually no kitchen at Pickleball Food Pub.
Instead, Brown partners with neighboring businesses in the Mission Commons Shopping Center to let people bring treats in. He offers a limited amount of prepared food to meet the requirements of the space’s liquor license.
According to its website, Pickleball Food Pub has over 7,000 members who can access its courts, equipment, leagues and lessons.
“We don't recommend that you drink while you're playing," Brown told Westword before the space opened. But he does hope people will enjoy themselves in the space — and so far, it seems they have.
Other places where people can pickle and be merry are coming to Denver soon, with the company behind bowling eatertainment company Punch Bowl Social planning to open two locations of a similar concept for pickleball in metro Denver called Camp Pickle.
Camp Pickle will come to Centennial in 2024 and Globeville in 2025.
A concept that will install thirteen indoor pickleball courts and a bar, 3rd Shot Pickleball, is coming to Wheat Ridge later this year. Chicken N Pickle — a national brand that creates indoor-outdoor spaces with pickleball, other yard games and food — plans to open a location in Thornton in 2024.
If pickleball pubs don’t interest you, head to Arvada
Westword’s 2023 choice for Best Place to Play Pickleball is the Apex Pickleball Courts at the Simms Street Recreation Center in Arvada. There, players can catch a game year-round at the Marquardt-Miles Outdoor Pickleball Courts outside the rec center, or indoor drop-in games available from November through March.
During warm weather, the outdoor courts are open for play, and the complex will host many pickleball events this year, including the Pickleball Blast Tournament on April 29 and 30 and the Mile High Amateur Open on May 13 and 14.
Play on, picklers!
