San Antonio still trails in pickleball courts as sport slows

The pickleball craze — so hot in the pandemic and immediately afterward — may be cooling off.

The big picture: The number of outdoor, government-funded 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, per the Trust for Public Land (TPL).

Yes, but: 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.

Zoom in: San Antonio was slow to pick up on the pickleball craze. We have 68 public pickleball courts — or just 0.5 per 10,000 residents, per TPL.

• That's still up from 54 courts two years ago.

What they're saying: "Local leaders are balancing tighter budgets, aging infrastructure and growing demand for many different kinds of recreational amenities," Will Klein, TPL's director of parks research, tells Axios.