Richmond's pickleball boom shows signs of slowing

The big picture: The number of pickleball courts across the 100 most populous U.S. cities increased just 4% from 2025 to 2026, per the Trust for Public Land, a pro-parks nonprofit.

• That's compared to 13% growth in 2025 and 14% in 2024.
• The slowing growth comes after many cities already built out courts, but other amenities — like gardens, disc golf and outdoor fitness zones — are also seeing higher or equal spending growth for the first time in years.

🏓 Zoom in: Richmond's pickleball boom seemed to start in 2023, per TPL's count.

• The city went from 12 pickleball courts in 2023 to 21 in 2024, per TPL.
• The court count jumped to 31 last year and remained flat for this year.

Context: Counts include courts striped for both tennis and pickleball.

Stunning stat: Parks in the country's biggest cities now have 3,765 pickleball courts, TPL says — up nearly 900% from 2017.

🎾 What they're saying: "Cities are still adding courts, but not at the breakneck pace we saw over the last two years and since 2017," Will Klein, TPL's director of parks research, tells Axios.

What we're watching: For the rise of the pickleball defenders.