Queen City Pickleball Hub hosting provincials, final event before lease ends

Regina’s Queen City Pickleball Hub is in its final week at the REAL District after its site was sold ahead of a move to Park Street. Damian Smith has more.

The Queen City Pickleball Hub (QCPH) is hosting the 2026 provincial tournament until Sunday, featuring some of the province’s top talent. However, this is the last event at their current location as their five year lease comes to an end.

The group will move out of the Avana Centre in June after Brandt bought their location earlier this month.

“We could see the writing on the wall with REAL that our future was probably limited there,” said QCPH owner Phil Greenwood.

The QCPH said that talks stalled with REAL in July 2025, when they had five months left in the lease. Fast forward to the end of 2025, they were given an extension until the end of May 2026.

“We were assured that we would have something in writing right away. It just dragged on month after month and request after request. So, something was going on with REAL on why they wouldn’t commit to a new lease or an extension of the existing one,” Greenwood said.

Greenwood said they have over 6,000 players at their Regina facility, along with around 5,500 players at Bridge City Pickleball Hub in Saskatoon.

Invented in the 1960s, the racquet sport is considered an accessible game that keeps growing in Saskatchewan. With more players, the more competition there will be.

Last week, ‘Picklr Canada’ signed a multi-unit development with Saskatchewan Pickleball Clubs (SPC) Ltd. to bring facilities to Saskatoon and Regina. The Saskatoon location is expected to open later this year, which will be a 31,000 square foot facility to house 10 full sized pickleball courts.

“[Picklr Canada] has been very successful in the markets they’ve opened so far and they’ve been competing successfully against people like me, that might have been independent,” said Larry Owen, the President of the SPC.

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Previously, Picklr Canada has expanded to two different locations in Toronto and Winnipeg.

“Rather than face a formidable competitor when they came into Saskatchewan, I looked at joining forces with them instead. They have nice courts, big courts, well-lit, clean and everything is kind of modern and very nicely finished,” Owen said.

Greenwood doesn’t see this as a loss for his organization and sees it as an opportunity for the sport to grow in Saskatchewan.

“There’s, TopZpin, there’s Uptown Jack’s, there’s several community centres. It might be just a little bit too much for the market at this point, but we’re already established, as are the other places,” he said. “It’s going to be tough for an outside company to come in, they’d have to basically take the majority of our customers, and their rates are higher than ours.”

For their Regina location, the SPC is currently evaluating potential sites around the city.

“It’s tough to find a good spot. That’s what we’re up against in every location,” Owen said. “You keep looking and looking for a long time here even, and Regina is the same thing. Things are expensive, things are tough to find, industrial warehouse vacancy is very low in Saskatchewan. Everybody is trying to open pickleball facilities in the exact same bind.”

The QCPH says they are a week away from sale finalization for their new building, expected to be located on Park Street. It’s a part of a three-year search, with the building expected to open sometime in June.

Members like Paul Legrand will miss the expiring location, where he formed long lasting memories.

“It’s very central, it has lots of parking, that’s one of the biggest things,” he said. “I met a ton of friends here to pick up pickleball, it’s just growing.”

“I view it as a very positive experience,” Greenwood said. “It was a place to cultivate a lot of friendships, provide a service that made a lot of people meet a lot of people, it brought a lot of joy to their life and exercise. There’s no regrets whatsoever.”

According to Greenwood, the new Park Street location is expected to have six courts to start, potentially expanding to nine depending on city bylaws and requirements.