Arizona is becoming the pickleball capital of the world—but a $3.50 fee threatens Tucson’s free community courts while a private palace rises on native land.

Arizona Is in a Pickle — And It’s Not the Kind You Eat

by Three Sonorans

On a Tuesday morning in April, dozens of Tucsonans lined up outside City Hall — paddles in hand, chanclas on pavement, ready to fight for a public park. Four days earlier, hundreds had packed a meeting room at Udall Park itself. They weren’t there to discuss the sport. They were there to defend the idea that public space belongs to the public.

Meanwhile, 90 miles up the I-10, a Nasdaq-listed private equity firm just got the green light to build a 196,000-square-foot pickleball palace — complete with a rooftop bar and a federal tax break — on Indigenous land in Scottsdale. Arizona, amig@s, is in a pickle.

But First — ¿Qué es Pickleball?

For the tías, abuelos, and anyone who hasn’t been to a gym since the pandemic: pickleball is basically tennis and ping-pong’s lovechild, played on a badminton-sized court with a wiffle ball and a solid paddle…

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