PPA Tour Takes Over Pickleball Operations at Arizona Athletic Grounds in Landmark Multi-Decade Deal

The place where professional pickleball has already produced some of its biggest crowds is about to become much more than another stop on the schedule.

The Carvana Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) Tour and Arizona Athletic Grounds announced a sweeping multi-decade partnership Thursday that will give the PPA control of year-round pickleball operations at the massive Mesa, Arizona sports complex.

The 41-court pickleball facility will now be known as the PPA Campus at Arizona Athletic Grounds, with plans for the property to become a national hub not only for professional tournaments, but also for pro training, junior development, amateur programming and other pickleball experiences.

And this isn't simply a naming-rights agreement.

The PPA is planting a flag in Arizona

Under the new agreement, the PPA Tour will take over year-round operations of AAG's pickleball facility, which currently includes 41 courts, four medal courts with spectator seating and a covered Championship Stadium court capable of seating approximately 2,000 fans.

The Tour will also make what the two organizations describe as a "significant capital investment" into the pickleball campus. Among the improvements specifically mentioned are additional shade and seating, two upgrades that should be particularly noticeable for players and fans attending events in the Arizona heat.

Additional tournaments are also expected, along with year-round training opportunities for professionals and amateurs, junior programming and other initiatives that have yet to be announced.

For the PPA, the agreement effectively provides something most traveling professional sports tours don't have: a large-scale permanent campus it can program throughout the year.

It is also a significant escalation of an existing partnership.

In February 2026, AAG and the PPA announced an agreement that guaranteed the facility at least two PPA Tour events annually through 2028, including the Carvana Mesa Cup. Just seven months later, that arrangement has turned into a multi-decade partnership and an operational takeover of the entire pickleball portion of the complex.

There is plenty of evidence explaining why.

The 2025 Carvana Mesa Cup drew 18,965 fans over six days, which the PPA said made it the largest pickleball event in the facility's history. Ticket revenue topped $300,000, and tickets were completely sold out from Thursday through Sunday. At the time, the PPA called it the Tour's most successful event outside of the World Championships in Dallas.

The relationship has only continued to grow. AAG is hosting two PPA Tour events during the 2026 calendar year, including this week's Veolia Arizona Open from September 14-20.

"Our focus on partnering with the top sports organizations in the U.S. is unwavering," AAG CEO Mike Burke said in announcing the new agreement. "With the PPA's incredible growth and programming expertise, and AAG's state-of-the-art facilities and commitment to white-glove service, I firmly believe that the PPA Campus at Arizona Athletic Grounds will have an enormously positive impact on the local, regional, and national pickleball community."

PPA founder and CEO Connor Pardoe pointed specifically to the Tour's previous success in Mesa.

"Year after year, the success of Carvana PPA Tour events at Arizona Athletic Grounds underscores just how amazing the facility, its staff and the broader Mesa pickleball community are," Pardoe said.

There is also a bit of symmetry to the deal: Mesa hosted the very first PPA Tour event in February 2020, although that tournament was held nearly two years before Arizona Athletic Grounds opened.

Six years later, Mesa isn't just another city on the Tour anymore. It's becoming a permanent piece of the PPA's infrastructure.

From Bell Bank Park to Arizona Athletic Grounds

The facility itself has had a much more complicated path to this point.

The sprawling complex originated as Legacy Sports Park, a roughly $250 million project built on 320 acres of the former General Motors Proving Grounds in southeast Mesa. Construction broke ground in 2020 with the ambitious goal of creating one of the largest youth sports and entertainment destinations in the country.

Before opening, the facility struck a naming-rights agreement with Bell Bank and became Bell Bank Park. It opened in January 2022 with an enormous collection of sports infrastructure, including basketball and volleyball courts, soccer and lacrosse fields, baseball and softball diamonds and, critically for this story, 41 pickleball courts.

But the business ran into financial problems almost immediately.

By October 2022, the facility had defaulted on bond payments. Bell Bank eventually terminated its naming-rights agreement, and in April 2023 the property reverted to the name Legacy Park.

Then came the biggest blow.

Legacy Cares, the nonprofit that owned the facility, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 1, 2023. Court filings at the time listed approximately $366.7 million in liabilities against $242.3 million in assets.

The complex remained open while a buyer was sought, and in December 2023, AZ Athletic Associates LLC completed a $25.8 million acquisition of the property out of bankruptcy. The new ownership group rebranded the complex as Arizona Athletic Grounds.

Since then, the venue has gone through a considerable resurgence.

AAG reported more than 2.8 million visitors in 2025, a 16 percent year-over-year increase, with visitors coming from all 50 states. The campus has continued building long-term relationships with national sports organizations while investing in food and beverage, training, hospitality and other parts of the overall experience.

Pickleball has emerged as one of the facility's most visible pieces.

Now the PPA is taking that part of the business over.

So, What Could This Look Like by the 2027 Mesa Cup?

We may not have to wait long to get our first look at the new PPA Campus.

The 2027 Carvana Mesa Cup is scheduled for February 15-21 at Arizona Athletic Grounds, less than five months after Thursday's announcement.

Neither AAG nor the PPA has released a detailed construction timeline, so it would be premature to assume the entire transformation will be finished by February. But the announcement specifically says that many of the new initiatives are expected to launch in early 2027.

That makes the Mesa Cup the obvious first showcase.

Additional shade and seating would be the most visible immediate improvements, and we could also begin seeing new PPA branding throughout the facility, revised fan areas, expanded amateur experiences or announcements surrounding year-round academies and training programs.

The bigger story, though, goes beyond what changes before one tournament.

Professional pickleball has spent most of its existence traveling from temporary home to temporary home. With this deal, the PPA now has the opportunity to build something more permanent — a place where the Tour can host tournaments, develop junior players, train professionals, run amateur events and experiment with what a purpose-built PPA environment can look like.

And fittingly, it's happening in Mesa, the city where the PPA Tour began.