Arlington opens six new pickleball courts at Walter Reed center

Six former tennis courts at Walter Reed Community Center now belong to pickleball, and Arlington’s decision says plenty about how hard the sport has pressed on public recreation space. The new courts opened May 22 at 6 p.m., with Arlington County setting a ribbon-cutting for June 10 at 5 p.m. and calling the courts drop-in only, a setup meant to keep play moving at a site where demand has already outgrown the old tennis layout.

The county said the Walter Reed project converted the outdoor tennis courts into dedicated, single-use pickleball courts after an outdoor courts assessment and criteria process. That matters because it shows the change was planned, not improvised. Arlington Parks and Recreation already lists 25 outdoor courts and 18 indoor courts striped for pickleball, and the county’s Public Spaces Master Plan includes an action step to establish a dedicated pickleball facility. Walter Reed is the clearest expression of that policy so far.

The shift also shows the tradeoffs that come with carving out space for a sport that has moved from hobby to fixture. In November 2023, county planners told the board that survey respondents who identified as players generally favored continuing the project, while neighbors were more likely to favor pausing it. By March 2025, the final design had been sharpened with lighting, fencing, sound-reduction measures, seating and ADA-accessible pathways, a package that acknowledged the need for stronger play space while trying to answer the complaints that came with it.

That tension is exactly why Walter Reed feels bigger than a single court project. WUSA9 reported that more than 330 community members had already weighed in on draft concepts, underscoring how much local interest had built around the site before the first serve. Arlington County has also tied the project to the broader pickleball surge that accelerated during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and the county’s approach at Walter Reed suggests it is now planning for that surge as a permanent part of the rec landscape. The old tennis courts were not just painted over. They were converted into a space designed to handle the pressure pickleball keeps putting on cities.