About Pelican Bay Pickleball in Naples, FL

SCROLL DOWN TO  VIEW THE MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT & AMENDMENT

Updated 1/7/26:

The Pickleball Project is a public-private partnership between Collier County and the Pelican Bay Foundation (PBF). 

• Collier County owns the land, which is located within Pelican Bay Community Park (a public park). 
• The PBF funded the construction of the Pickleball Project and also manages the facility.  

The Public Advisory Group was formed in August 2023, after the contract between Collier County and the Pelican Bay Foundation (PBF) was approved. From the beginning, our group has fully supported the success of the pickleball facility. Our goal is to ensure that the public players have usage of 50% of the courts, as required by the Amendment to the Management Agreement.

Since 2023, we have actively promoted the PBCP pickleball project through our Facebook page and website, sharing construction updates and answering questions from the public. By comparison, the PBF launched its public Facebook page and website for the project in November, 2025.

In 2023, our group asked Collier County for an Amendment to the Management Agreement to guarantee that the public would receive 50% access to the pickleball courts. After a lengthy review process, the Amendment was approved.

The PBCP pickleball facility is open and it is outstanding — the Pelican Bay players are great and the onsite team. Michelle, Dino, and David are doing an amazing job operating the facility day to day.

However, we continue to face challenges with the Pelican Bay Foundation Management’s plans designed to restrict public access, including claims made to Foundation members at two Foundation meetings: “I have very high confidence that what I said at the last meeting, that we’ll have more than 50% usage, in practice will actually occur.” 

The Amendment to the Management Agreement clearly states:

• “Members of the public shall have access to 50% of the pickleball courts during the same days and hours as members of the Foundation. No more than fifty percent (50%) of the pickleball courts shall be for usage by members of the Foundation”
• Link to Management Agreement and Amendment:: https://pelicanbaypickleball.com/about

In November, 2025, the Foundation reversed its prior commitment to provide 10 dedicated public courts. This commitment had been made at several public meetings, including a Foundation-hosted meeting on 10/28/24 at Veterans Park, where the Foundation displayed a slide showing courts #11–20 designated as public courts.  Link to meeting summary: https://pelicanbaypickleball.com/blog/f/102824-meeting-summary 

At our request, the County intervened and ensured that the public would receive the 10 courts as promised. We greatly appreciate the ongoing support of Collier County!

The current concern is the court schedule that restricts afternoon play for the public players. Details about this may be found on this Blog post: https://pelicanbaypickleball.com/blog/f/open-play-%E2%80%94-all-day 

We have asked the Foundation to address this issue and are hopeful that a reasonable compromise can be reached. If needed, we will again request assistance from the County. The County has been very supportive of ensuring that the public players receive equal access as required by the Amendment.

Because the Foundation has a 30-year contract to manage this facility, it is critical to establish fair, transparent policies from the start. This is part of an ongoing process of fine-tuning operations to ensure that public players are treated fairly. This will ensure the long-term success of this public-private partnership.

Now that the facility is open, it is clear that having a Public Advisory Group is necessary because there are no County staff inside the gated pickleball facility. No one can see what goes on inside the gates. Our group relies on feedback from the public players so that we can keep the County updated on the public player experience.

SCROLL DOWN TO  VIEW THE MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT & AMENDMENT