Professional pickleball tournament coming to Evansville in 2025
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A new pickleball series is launching next year, and Evansville is one of 16 sites chosen for the competition.
The Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) announced the PPA Challenger Series will take place Sept. 19–21, 2025 at Evansville’s Wesselman Park. The organization says the series was created to make a structured pathway for aspiring professionals to join the Carvana PPA Tour while giving players of all ages and skill levels opportunities to enhance their game alongside professionals.
“We had a couple of local [pickleball] tournaments that were pretty well attended, so we just want to keep building on the momentum,” said Aaron King, sports sales lead for Explore Evansville. “I think it’ll be a great highlight for our region going forward in terms of sports tourism…this is certainly a part of our strategy to grow not only youth, but pro and even amateur sports in our area.”
King told Inside INdiana Business the city hopes to use the tournament to generate more events for Evansville.
“We’re hoping this will be an opportunity for us to grow and look at some even bigger pickleball tournaments down the road, potentially some pro tournaments,” he said. “Having the PPA brand into our city, I think will really elevate and highlight our courts and our facility here. It’s a big win for our community.”
The event is projected to be the largest tournament hosted at Wesselman Park to date. Sixteen pickleball courts opened earlier this year, and there are adjacent tennis courts that can be converted for pickleball.
Plans for the tournament are underway with the PPA and Explore Evansville aiming to keep the fans in mind along with the players.
“We want to have things that entertain people also while they’re there, from food trucks to some entertainment to maybe some music. There are lots of things that we have that we want to do to make sure that this is a really fun and exciting tournament,” Kate Reibel, Explore Evansville director of marketing and development, said. “PPA comes with all their own tricks as well… it] is so fast paced when you’re watching these games, and so that makes it fun for anybody, whether you know what’s going on in the game or you don’t.”
Explore Evansville says 500-700 players are expected to compete.
For more information about the tournament or to register, click here.