Palm Springs unveiled a $5.1M upgraded 22 court complex at Demuth Park on Oct 21, with shade, seating, drinking fountains, and new sports lighting, open daily 6am to 10pm. That is public money turning into real supply, the treat side of this edition.
Columbus, Georgia is the other side. A local accountability piece reports its public pickleball project grew from a roughly $1.6M original commitment to a $7.48M budget in June 2026, then council approved an extra $1.7M on Oct 13, 7 to 2, taking the public investment to about $8.4M for a 28 court warehouse site project. Columbus Pickleball Association raised about $1.35M in total, about $950k of it into land purchase and clearance. Treat the Columbus figure as reported, not audited, since it rests on a single local source with figures attributed to city documents and council votes.
Why it matters: When a public project triples in cost, the next council is less likely to approve the next one. Palm Springs shows what public investment looks like when it lands. Columbus shows what it costs a town when the bill keeps growing, and why cost growth is not the same as waste, but still shapes the next vote.