Short answer: the PPA Campus at Arizona Athletic Grounds is the new name for a 41-court pickleball complex in Mesa, Arizona, which the Carvana PPA Tour will now operate year-round under a multi-decade deal announced September 17, 2026. It gives a pro tour something it has never had — a permanent home base — and it is roughly twice the size of anything in New England.
Professional pickleball just stopped renting. On Thursday the Carvana PPA Tour and Arizona Athletic Grounds announced a multi-decade partnership handing the tour year-round operational control of AAG’s entire pickleball complex, which will now be called the PPA Campus at Arizona Athletic Grounds. For a sport whose pro tours have always been travelling circuses, that is a real structural change — and it is worth looking at through a New England lens, because the numbers involved are not numbers we have here.
The 30-second version
- What happened: the PPA Tour takes over year-round operations of the 41-court pickleball facility at Arizona Athletic Grounds in Mesa, AZ.
- How long: multi-decade. The previous deal, signed in February 2026, only guaranteed two events a year through 2028.
- What is coming: PPA-funded capital investment including more shade and seating, new tournaments, and year-round pro, junior and amateur programming, with initiatives launching in early 2027.
- The New England angle: nothing in our six states is remotely this big, and the PPA’s published schedule through May 2027 does not stop in New England once.
What is the PPA Campus at Arizona Athletic Grounds?
It is the rebranded pickleball side of a very large multi-sport complex. Per the announcement, the facility the PPA is taking over includes:
- 41 courts
- Four medal courts with spectator stands
- A covered Championship Stadium court seating up to 2,000
That sits inside a 275-acre campus in Mesa with more than 150 playing surfaces and 500,000 indoor square feet, which also hosts Major League Pickleball, MLS NEXT, Nike EYBL and USA Basketball, and served as a 2026 FIFA World Cup base camp.
The tour is not just putting its name on the building. It is taking over operations and funding what both sides call a significant capital investment — specifically more shade and seating, which anyone who has played a February tournament in Arizona will recognize as the right priority. AAG CEO Mike Burke framed it as a bet on the PPA’s programming expertise; PPA founder and CEO Connor Pardoe pointed to the tour’s track record in Mesa.
The escalation is quick. In February 2026 the two sides announced a deal guaranteeing a minimum of two PPA events a year at AAG through 2028. Seven months later that became an operational takeover measured in decades.
Why does a tour want to own the building?
Because a tour that only shows up once or twice a year captures almost none of the money a facility generates. Leagues, clinics, junior programs, memberships and daily open play run 52 weeks; a tournament runs six days. Owning the calendar means the PPA can sell training, run its own events at its own cost basis, and develop juniors in one place instead of renting space behind whoever else booked the courts.
It is also the mirror image of a trend we wrote about last week. Independent pickleball facilities are going up for sale and getting cheaper as the first wave of operators discovers the margins are thinner than the hype. The capital is not leaving the sport — it is consolidating, and the organizations with media contracts and investor backing are the ones buying.
How does that compare to the largest pickleball facility in New England?
It does not, and this is the part worth sitting with. We maintain a directory of 1,132 pickleball venues across the six New England states, carrying roughly 4,740 courts between them. Here is how they break down by size:
| Courts at one venue | New England venues |
|---|---|
| 20 or more | 2 |
| 15 to 19 | 11 |
| 10 to 14 | 44 |
| 5 to 9 | 281 |
| 1 to 4 | 777 |
Take the most generous published numbers and the largest single pickleball venue in New England is listed at 24 courts — Starland Sportsplex in Hanover, Massachusetts — followed by Bosse Pickleball in Natick at 21. Everything else in the region is 19 or fewer.
One caveat we are going to state rather than bury, because it cuts against our own table: Starland’s own facilities page does not say 24. It describes eight regulation hardwood courts lined for basketball, volleyball, futsal and pickleball, and gives the pickleball figure as six. We could not reconcile the venue’s own number with the directory listings, and we are not going to pretend we did. It is a reminder we keep running into — aggregator court counts are leads, not facts.
Either number leads to the same conclusion. The single biggest pickleball venue in New England is somewhere between six and 24 courts. The PPA’s new campus is 41. Even on the generous reading, that is a 17-court gap, and 68 percent of New England venues have four courts or fewer.
Is the PPA Tour coming to New England?
Not on the current schedule. We pulled the PPA’s published calendar, and between now and May 2027 there is no stop in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire or Maine. The fall run goes Mesa, Las Vegas, Chicago, Virginia Beach; 2027 fills in with California, Florida, Texas, Minnesota, Utah, Ohio and Georgia. Virginia Beach is the closest thing to an East Coast stop, and it is an eight-hour drive from Hartford.
That is not an accusation — it is a market reality. Pro tours follow indoor-outdoor climate, arena availability and sponsor money, and a February event in New England is a non-starter. But it does mean the gap between where the sport’s capital is going and where New England’s 4,700 courts actually are is widening, not closing.
What does this actually change for a New England player?
Honestly, very little this month. Nobody in Brattleboro or Biddeford plays differently because a tour signed a lease in Mesa. But three things are worth tracking:
- Consolidation is the story of the next two years. Tours and franchises buying operations, independents selling. If your winter club is independently owned, ownership questions are now reasonable ones to ask.
- Scale sets expectations. Once players see a 41-court campus with year-round junior programming, the 4-court town park starts to feel small — which is exactly the pressure that gets new municipal courts funded.
- Our ceiling is municipal, not private. New England’s realistic path to more capacity runs through town rec departments and grants, not through a tour building a campus here.
That last point is the optimistic one. New England towns have been quietly adding dedicated courts at a real clip — six new ones in Brattleboro, Vermont this spring, funded largely by donations. That is the version of this story that actually happens here, and it is covered in our guide to pickleball court grants. For where to play right now, the court directory and our indoor pickleball guide are the place to start.
Frequently asked questions
What is the PPA Campus at Arizona Athletic Grounds?
It is the new name for the 41-court pickleball complex at Arizona Athletic Grounds in Mesa, Arizona. Under a multi-decade partnership announced on September 17, 2026, the Carvana PPA Tour takes over year-round operation of the facility and will fund capital improvements to it.
How many courts does the PPA Campus have?
41 courts, including four medal courts with spectator stands and a covered Championship Stadium court with seating for up to 2,000 spectators. The wider Arizona Athletic Grounds campus covers 275 acres with more than 150 playing surfaces.
What is the largest pickleball facility in New England?
Directory listings put Starland Sportsplex in Hanover, Massachusetts at the top with 24 courts, ahead of Bosse Pickleball in Natick at 21. Starland’s own facilities page gives a lower figure of six pickleball courts on its hardwood floor, so treat the larger number with caution. No New England venue approaches the 41 courts in Mesa.
Will the PPA Tour hold an event in New England?
There is no New England stop on the PPA Tour schedule published through May 2027. The nearest East Coast stop on that calendar is Virginia Beach, Virginia. New England players looking for high-level competition generally travel or enter regional tournaments instead.
Does the PPA own Arizona Athletic Grounds now?
No. The announcement covers operations, not ownership of the wider property. Arizona Athletic Grounds remains a multi-sport campus hosting many other events, and the PPA is taking over year-round operations of the pickleball facility specifically, under a multi-decade partnership.
Sources: the joint Arizona Athletic Grounds and Carvana PPA Tour announcement (September 17, 2026), AAG’s own February 2026 partnership release, and the PPA Tour schedule. The story was first flagged by The Dink. New England venue counts are from our own court directory.