Six pickleball courts to open in Arena Park early November

To accommodate a growing popularity of pickleball, Arena Park will soon have six pickleball courts.

According to Brock Davis, parks division manager for the City of Cape Girardeau, renovations have begun at Arena Park's existing tennis courts. The four existing tennis courts will be modified to include six pickleball courts and two tennis courts.

The courts are midway through construction. Davis estimated the courts will be ready and available to use by early November.

Davis said he's noticed pickleball increase in popularity exponentially in the last few years. Three years ago, Parks and Recreation staff added temporary pickleball court lines on existing tennis courts in Arena Park for players to have an outdoor option to play.

Updates to Arena Park's courts are routine every seven or eight years, Davis said. This year, Parks and Recreation staff decided to do something different.

"There were probably 100 people playing pickleball and maybe 10 or 20 playing tennis," Davis said. "So, this year, we decided to make more pickleball courts than tennis courts."

The two tennis courts completed after the renovations will also include temporary lines for pickleball.

Once the construction phase is done, the parks department will begin seeking options for lighting, Davis said.

According to Davis, the renovations total $124,000 in cost. Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation Foundation provided $25,000 for the project. The rest of the project's funding was sourced by the Parks and Recreation Stormwater Tax Initiative.