Fayetteville opens Courts at Glenville Lake with four pickleball courts

Fayetteville finally cut the ribbon on a racquet-sports facility built to do more than absorb a casual open play crowd. The Courts at Glenville Lake opened June 3 at 730 Filter Plant Drive with four pickleball courts, 11 tennis courts and the kind of support space that turns a park amenity into a real destination.

The 6,594-square-foot center includes locker rooms, a lounge, a learning area and a pro shop, along with one championship competition court on the tennis side. That matters for pickleball players because the site was designed as a full complex, not a few taped lines on an existing surface. With indoor-style support spaces and a court mix that can handle instruction, league play and competition, Fayetteville now has a stronger base for clinics, ladder nights and organized weekend meetups than it had before.

The city said the project represented a $13.4 million investment, financed through the 2016 voter-approved Parks and Recreation Bond and American Rescue Plan Act dollars. Fayetteville voters approved the $35 million parks and recreation bond referendum in March 2016, and the city has said the debt was backed by a dedicated 1.35-cent tax-rate increase over 25 years. After that level of public spending, the opening at Glenville Lake gave the bond a visible payoff in one of the city’s biggest recreation projects.

The road to opening was anything but smooth. Local reporting described years of delays, contractor disputes, legal issues, a state audit and a criminal investigation before the site reached ribbon-cutting day. A Superior Court judge also ordered Apex Contracting Group to pay Fayetteville $236,142 after the company abandoned city projects in 2024. Even so, city officials pushed the tennis center across the finish line and treated the opening as a sign that major recreation investments could still be delivered.

The city had already given residents an early look on April 1, and officials have framed the center as part of a broader push to expand tennis and pickleball access across Fayetteville. Tokay Park is set to replace six tennis courts with three tennis courts and 10 pickleball courts, while Lake Rim Park finished tennis court refurbishments in 2025 and Mazarick Park is next in line for improvements. With Glenville Lake now open, Fayetteville has a clearer answer to the question of whether it can host more than everyday drop-in play: the city now has a purpose-built place for it.