Why Bay St. Louis Only Built Two Pickleball Courts (For Now)

Before McDonald Park had paddles, it had pallets. In the weeks after Hurricane Katrina, the ballfield off Dunbar Avenue stopped being a place where kids played softball and became the city's main distribution point, the spot where residents lined up for water, tarps, and whatever else Bay St. Louis could get its hands on. It took years to feel like a park again. A splash pad went in during the summer of 2012, and the field slowly went back to being a place for birthday parties and afternoon runs through the sprinklers rather than emergency supplies.

Nearly two years ago, the city added something the softball field never had: pickleball courts. And it built exactly two of them, on purpose, even though its own planning documents already show six.

Two courts, years of asking

The two courts at McDonald Park opened for play on October 15, 2024, with a ribbon cutting that drew enough people that, according to WLOX's coverage of the opening, council member Gene Hoffman guessed fifteen players were already waiting their turn before the ceremony wrapped. That waiting line was not a surprise. Hoffman, whose Ward 2 seat covers the park, told WLOX the city had been fielding requests for courts for years before it broke ground, and that the choice of location came down to an underused field that needed a second life. Councilman-at-large Gary Knoblock put the demand in national terms, calling pickleball "the fastest growing sport in America" and noting how little it asks of a first-time player.

None of that demand showed up out of nowhere. Bay St. Louis had already painted pickleball lines onto an existing tennis court before McDonald Park's courts were official, a stopgap that says as much about pent-up interest as any ribbon cutting.

What two courts actually cost

The build was modest by design. According to the city, the project ran on $138,000 from Bay St. Louis's 2020 General Obligation Bond, paired with a $48,000 anonymous gift routed through the Hancock County Community Foundation.

That is a real number, but it is not a number that builds a recreation complex. It builds a pilot. The city's own recreation page describes the two courts as the first phase of a plan that eventually calls for six courts total at the same Dunbar and Ulman Avenue site, plus, in the words of local reporting on the project, more cornhole courts and pavilions still to come. Two courts were what a bond allocation and one generous donor could cover in year one. Six was always the actual target.

The courts filled up before some people even switched sports

Golden Fairconnetue, known locally as Goldie, had been playing pickleball for a while before Bay St. Louis had anywhere to play it. She told WLOX she used to drive to Popps Ferry, a court over in Biloxi, two or three times a week, splitting her playing time up and down the Coast because her own city didn't have a court to offer. When McDonald Park opened, she described the change simply: it eased the drive, eased the gas money, and gave her somewhere to play two or three times a week without leaving town.

That is the part of this story that a top-line "new courts opened" headline misses. The demand for pickleball in Bay St. Louis did not start when the paint dried on the courts. It existed for years, exported to whichever Coast city already had a place to play. Two courts did not create a pickleball habit here. They gave an existing one somewhere to land, which is exactly why fifteen people were already lined up on opening day and why a two-court build reads less like an amenity and more like a release valve.

Six is still the plan

Mayor Mike Favre has said the city hopes to eventually use pickleball to bring visitors in, not just serve people who already live here, with tournaments as the long-term goal once more courts exist. That ambition matters for anyone playing now. A city building toward six courts and organized tournaments is a city that expects its two current courts to get busier before they get quieter. Pass Christian, just down the Coast, opened its own two pickleball courts near War Memorial Park the same year, partly funded by a $20,000 AARP grant, which tells you this was not one city guessing at demand. It was a regional pattern that Bay St. Louis is now scaling up in phases rather than all at once.

For a resident deciding whether to pick up a paddle this fall, the timing argument is straightforward: the courts available right now are the smallest version of what this amenity is going to be. Four more courts, plus cornhole and pavilions, are already on the city's own plan. The early, uncrowded version of McDonald Park's pickleball scene is not a permanent condition.

You don't need your own paddles to find out if you like it

Here is the detail that never makes it into the ribbon-cutting coverage. The Hancock County Library System's Bay St. Louis branch, at 312 Highway 90, keeps pickleball sets on hand for patrons to check out. You do not need to own a paddle, or know anyone who plays, to show up at McDonald Park and try it. That is a small civic decision, a library quietly solving the equipment problem for anyone curious enough to walk in and ask, and it lowers the barrier to entry for a sport the city is clearly betting will keep growing.

Between the library's loaner paddles and courts that are free and open to the public, the only real cost of finding out whether pickleball is for you is showing up.

The practical version

If you live in Old Town and haven't been out to McDonald Park yet, here's what's actually there right now:

• Two public pickleball courts, free to use, at 411 Dunbar Avenue
• A splash pad and playground on the same grounds, useful if you're bringing kids along while you play
• Loaner pickleball sets available through the Hancock County Library System's Bay St. Louis branch at 312 Highway 90
• A city-stated plan to expand to six total courts, plus cornhole courts and pavilions, at the same location

None of that is a reason to move here. It is a reason to walk over to a park you may have driven past a hundred times without knowing what changed. The field that once handed out emergency water now hands out something closer to a Tuesday evening habit, and the version of it you'll find today is the smallest one this city plans to build.

If you're already living within walking distance of Old Town and want to know what else has changed nearby, or you're weighing a move into the neighborhood and want a clearer read on what daily life here actually looks like, 124 Court Development is a good place to start that conversation. Schedule a consultation and we'll walk you through it.