May 26, 2026 - Sports
Pickleball craze peters out
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The pickleball craze — so hot in the pandemic and immediately afterwards — may be cooling off.
The big picture: The number of pickleball courts across the 100 most populous U.S. cities increased just 4% from 2025 to 2026. That's compared to 13% growth in 2025, and 14% in 2024.
Zoom out: Other amenities are seeing higher or equal spending growth for the first time in years.
- Garden spending is up 8%, disc golf is up 4% and outdoor fitness zones are up 3%.
Reality check: Parks in the country's biggest cities now have 3,765 pickleball courts, TPL says — up nearly 900% from 2017.
- That includes those striped for both tennis and pickleball.
🎾 Will Klein, TPL's director of parks research, tells Axios: "Cities are still adding courts, but not at the breakneck pace we saw over the last two years and since 2017."
- "That slowdown mirrors what we're seeing more broadly in parks systems nationwide, where local leaders are balancing tighter budgets, aging infrastructure, and growing demand for many different kinds of recreational amenities."
