Four dedicated courts. A $250,000 budget. A club that's raised $70,000 and is racing against a closing funding portal to find another $125,000. This is the full story behind Qualicum Beach's most contentious sporting debate.
Pickleball players in Qualicum Beach have been waiting for their own courts for years. They've lobbied council. They've fundraised. They've watched cost estimates balloon from $85,000 to over $350,000 and back down again as site after site was proposed, debated, and discarded.
Now, after years of back-and-forth, they finally have a location everyone can agree on — a site near the dog park on Garden Road, adjacent to the Qualicum Beach Airport. Town council has endorsed the plan and earmarked money in the 2027 budget. But there's a catch, and it's a significant one.
The Qualicum Beach Pickleball Club needs to raise $125,000 — and they may be running out of time to do it.
The original plan was to build courts near the new Qualicum Beach Skate Park behind the Civic Centre. That estimate started at $85,000 — shared between the Town and the club — but ballooned to over $350,000 once engineers looked at the site properly. New pathways would have to be removed. Access roads adjusted. The numbers didn't work.
Then there was a proposal to convert the third tennis court on Veteran's Way into four pickleball courts. The Arrowsmith Tennis Club, which has been serving Oceanside for 50 years and whose membership grew 21 per cent in 2025 alone, objected strongly. They hadn't been consulted and weren't prepared to give up a court they'd fundraised to build.
Eventually, staff found the Garden Road site near the Airport Road dog park. Mayor Teunis Westbroek called it an ideal location. Capital projects manager Oliver Watson confirmed the total cost — including parking and engineering design — at approximately $330,000. Council then made a key decision: strip out the parking and washrooms as a separate undertaking, bringing the project budget down to $250,000. The Town commits half. The club raises half.
The Qualicum Beach Pickleball Club has raised $70,000 so far, with $50,000 of that coming from the Raymond James Foundation. But here's where it gets complicated: that foundation portal is closing due to uncertainty over the project. That $50,000 may be at risk.
Club representatives told a recent council committee that raising the full $125,000 by year's end would be difficult. Realistically, they projected $100,000 at the most — leaving a gap that still needs to be closed before a shovel touches the ground.
Mayor Westbroek suggested the Town post a sign at the Garden Road site — visible to traffic on a busy road — explaining the project and listing a way for residents to contribute. "That's what happened with the skatepark fundraiser," he noted. It worked then. The question is whether it works fast enough now.
Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in North America — and Qualicum Beach is no exception. The club plays regularly at the Qualicum Beach Curling Club on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings while they wait for permanent courts. Drop-in sessions run $5, or $50 for the full season through mid-August. Anyone can play, but all players must be members of Pickleball Canada.
For a community that prides itself on outdoor recreation and active living, dedicated pickleball courts are not a luxury. They're infrastructure. The fact that it's taken this long — and that the club is still fundraising while council debates — says something about how slowly recreational priorities move through municipal machinery.
Want to help the club reach its goal?
Contact the Qualicum Beach Pickleball Club at qbpickleball@gmail.com to find out how to donate or get involved. Every dollar gets the courts closer to reality.
PQBVoice.ca will continue to follow this story. If you have information about the project, the fundraising, or the politics behind it, send us a note at tips@pqbvoice.ca.