A medium-shot, outdoor action photograph of a woman playing pickleball at a public court in St. Petersburg, Florida. The woman, in the foreground, is running toward the right side of the frame with a wide, joyful smile, holding a blue-and-yellow pickleball paddle in her right hand as she prepares to hit the ball. She is wearing a green, long-sleeved jacket over a light-colored top, black leggings, and athletic sneakers with her hair pulled up in a bun. The court is surrounded by a high chain-link fence, and the background shows other people playing on adjacent courts during a late-afternoon, golden-hour light setting. A bright yellow pickleball is captured in the air above the fence near the top right of the frame. — St. Petersburg is home to numerous pickleball facilities. Credit: StPeteFL / Facebook

Pickleball is the talk of the town this weekend thanks to the Major League Pickleball tournament happening in St. Pete from June 17-21, and the action might inspire some to start dinking around Tampa Bay.

If you’re pickle curious, your best bet is to just get out there and play.

Before you go, read up on the rules, especially about court position and scoring. You don’t need a $330 Boomstik (yet), but you should get at least a starter paddle, a couple of balls and some pickleball-specific sneakers.

You can find a buddy and a free court and hit it around a bit to get a feel for the mechanics of the sport. But soon you’ll want to find open play—where people just show up, put their paddles in the queue on the fence, and wait their chance to play with strangers. Here are just a few of the places you can check out.

Check your county or city’s parks and rec website for a start. Or the ParkView website (see below) to see when courts are busy. Here are some of the best places to play pickleball in the Tampa Bay area.

Best pickleball venues in Hillsborough County

Cuscaden Park is just north of I-4 and Ybor City and has six courts.

Rowlett Park just southwest of Busch Gardens has eight lighted pickle courts, a water fountain and restrooms.

The David M. Barksdale Center at 1801 N Lincoln Ave offers free beginner lessons from 1:00-3:00 p.m. on Monday, according to the City of Tampa’s parks & rec website.

There are courts on the Hillsborough College Dale Mabry campus. Yes, that’s where the Tampa Bay Rays and Governor DeSantis are conspiring to remake the campus into an ballpark district. Some students have expressed concerns that they’d lose the pickle courts in the transition. Pro Travis Rettenmaier calls that unfortunate. “I don’t spend a ton of time at that facility, but I played there enough to know that there’s people that count on those courts to play and I’m sure it does matter [for] a lot of the students having that access and availability,” Rettenmaier says.

Best pickleball venues in Pinellas County

Crescent Lake Park in St. Pete has high-level play, especially in the morning. There are six courts, often divided by skill level. Rettenmaier says, “I actually have a tattoo of the Crescent Lake place on my side.” He also recommends these four public parks: Fossil, JW Cate, Walter Fuller and Coquina Key. There are eight courts at Coquina, but a couple of them have massive cracks. The City of Indian Rocks Beach recently resurfaced six public courts at Rosselli Park.

Best pickleball venues in Manatee County

GT Bray in Bradenton. PPA Tour gold medalist John Lucian Goins told me that’s where he learned pickleball. He was 15 and playing tennis at GT Bray with his coach, but it was raining. “They had covered pickleball courts. So we were like, well, we can’t play tennis, might as well try out pickleball. … And I kind of just fell in love with it, just from that one day, and after that I couldn’t get enough of it,” Goins says.

Indoor pickleball in Tampa Bay, and apps to help you find courts

All throughout the Tampa Bay area there’s a number of indoor private clubs, which can be good for beginners or for players seeking shelter from the heat, cold or rain.

Apps to help you out

ParkView: this website gives you access to a network of video cameras at local parks. Have the courts dried out since the light shower a couple of hours ago? Are the racks full of paddles or is there a nice number of players you to slide right into open play? You might even be able to gauge the level of play to see how well you’ll fit in. Save some time to check it out before you schlep across town to the courts. parkviewlive.com

TeamReach: Once you’ve found some people you like playing with, see if they have a “group code” on TeamReach. You can sign up for times to play and see who else has committed. Or if anyone found those overpriced sunglasses you left hanging on the fence.

PickleballTV: You can buy a subscription to PBTV and watch all the pro matches live. Or you can watch Championship Court matches for free on the channel streaming live on Roku, for example. If you want to catch the recording of a big match, most of them are available to stream on the PPA Tour or PPA Streamed Courts YouTube channels by the following day. Watch and learn from the pros to improve your rec game.

MatchDay: This new app tracks the scores of pro matches live. When it’s updating correctly, it’s a lot easier than having to keep hitting refresh on the PPA Tour website.

DUPR: If you play in tournaments, you’ll get what’s called a DUPR rating, comparing your play to others. You can also follow your friends and track their progress. When you’re trying to play with strangers it’s helpful to know your approximate DUPR so you don’t accidentally become target practice. It’s just a whiffle ball, but getting body-bagged by your neighborhood 4.5 banger will sting and leave a tattoo for a couple of days. Find courts with open play closer to your level.

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This article appears in June 11 – 17, 2026.