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QuickTake:
Eugeneans are donating tens of thousands of dollars — and even an entire house — to support a planned $6.2 million pickleball complex at Lane Community College. The Peak Credit Union Regional Pickleball Complex (or simply, “The Peak”) would become one of the largest pickleball centers in the Pacific Northwest.
A planned pickleball complex in Eugene is about $1 million away from hitting its fundraising goal. Organizers say they are close to the end of a yearslong effort to pay for the multicourt project entirely with donations.
The $6.2 million project would turn a stretch of grass at Lane Community College into a 24-court regional complex, which would become one of the largest in the Pacific Northwest.
The complex is the vision of the Emerald Valley Pickleball Club, a group of local players that previously worked to introduce pickleball to Meadow Park in Springfield and Westmoreland Park in Eugene, which each have eight courts. The push for a dedicated, 24-court complex formally began in 2021, thanks to strained player capacity at those courts, said club president Tina Mickelson.
Now, with the help of private donors and a $500,000 commitment from Peak Credit Union, a groundbreaking in 2027 is firmly in their sights after two years of delays.
Pickleball has exploded in popularity in recent years. It’s a low-impact sport where it’s easier for players to drop into games than in traditional tennis.
Across the country, tennis courts are being adapted for pickleball at a rapid clip; four pickleball courts can fit inside the space of one tennis court. But rather than a tennis court conversion, the complex would require work on LCC grounds to level it for pickleball courts.
That has extended the groundbreaking for the project, which organizers had previously postponed in 2025 and 2026. The Emerald Valley Pickleball Foundation, the fundraising arm of the club, said it was set on not borrowing or going into debt for a construction project on public land, pushing the timeline farther out.
“This time next year, we’re going to be playing pickleball at LCC,” Mickelson said.
A Pacific Northwest pickleball hub?
The vision is for the complex to become a regional hub for the sport in the Pacific Northwest, able to host tournaments and out-of-state visitors as well as everyday players from the area.
With 24 courts, it will be one of the largest centers for pickleball in the region, tied with The Flying Pickle in Post Falls, Idaho, and two courts shy of the Side Out Tsunami Pickleball Center in Seattle.
The complex, the foundation’s online FAQ notes, would be 1,400 feet away from any residential space for those concerned about noise. When a pickleball hits the court, it makes a distinct “dink” sound (see the Apple TV pickleball comedy film “The Dink,” for example) that has become a hallmark of the sport and a bugbear for some.
Last year, a University of Oregon professor who lives near Westmoreland Park took issue with the frequent “dinks,” hiring the Portland- and Seattle-based firm HWS Law Group, which has previously been involved in restricting pickleball in Lake Oswego and Portland, to send a cease-and-desist request on behalf of his household and four others to the city ahead of a potential lawsuit. (No lawsuit was ever filed.)
What fundraising remains
After a particularly fruitful fundraising event on Aug. 6, Mickelson said, the foundation is much closer to its goal. While she didn’t disclose any specific private donations, she said that individual interested supporters have been calling and emailing to drop donations to the tune of $10,000 to $20,000, and she indicated there were a number of large donations she could not yet disclose.
One pickleball fan and weekly player, 92-year-old Buzz Summers, and his wife, Joyce, donated a house valued at $575,000. The house is a four-unit rental in Eugene’s Jefferson Westside neighborhood, and the foundation will take in the rental income until it sells. (The Summers will keep the donation write-off, while the foundation will take home net proceeds of the house sale after expenses.)
Private individual support is in addition to previous funding from the city of Eugene ($750,000), Lane County ($500,000), the donation of the land from LCC and a $25,000 grant from USA Pickleball, the sport’s national governing body, and the latest support from Peak Credit Union.
The complex is sponsored in part by the recently announced $500,000 gift from Peak Credit Union in matching donations through the end of the year. In return, the credit union will get naming rights: Organizers are hoping to call it the Peak Credit Union Regional Pickleball Complex, or simply, “The Peak.”
The potential to fund a regional hub for pickleball was part of the motivation for Peak to throw its weight behind the project, said David Tuyo, Peak Credit Union’s president and CEO.
“It was a no-brainer for us to say this is a long-term initiative that we can support,” Tuyo said.
“There’s no reason why we can’t have a world-class facility in our local area to help support this amazing community,” he added.
For Mickelson, finally funding the pickleball complex is a sure thing. An earlier plan would have allowed for phased construction if they fell short of the goal, she said, but that strategy has been shelved as the foundation expects the full donation amount to come through.
“Honestly, I kind of feel like a little bit of a farmer because we’re harvesting now,” Mickelson said. “But we planted for two or three long years.”
