Stamford adds six pickleball courts as Scalzi Park reopens renovated

Six new pickleball courts at Scalzi Park now sit beside 10 renovated tennis courts, giving Stamford amateurs a bigger, brighter place to play and easing some of the pressure on a park that has long been one of the city’s busiest recreation hubs.

The overhaul changed more than the court count. Stamford said the package, funded by a $200,000 grant from USTA New England, replaced the old setup with blended lines, new fencing and LED lighting, turning the complex into a more usable public venue for both tennis and pickleball. The city’s reconstruction plan had already laid out a deeper rebuild, including demolition of the existing courts, new drainage, post-tensioned tennis courts built to USTA standards and pickleball courts built to USA Pickleball and IFP standards.

For everyday players, that matters in practical ways. Better surfaces and fresh lighting improve the feel of each session, while dedicated pickleball courts reduce the scramble that often comes when the sport is squeezed onto shared lines. At Scalzi Park, the balance is now more deliberate: 10 tennis courts for the established racquet crowd and six courts reserved for pickleball, a ratio that should create clearer options for casual hitters, regular league players and newer players who need room to learn without being swallowed by heavier traffic.

Stamford Recreation has already built spring and summer programming around the new courts. Registration for the 2026 season opened March 16 at 8:30 a.m., and the lineup includes coached play for advanced beginners and low-intermediates rated 2.5 to 2.9, low-intermediate coached play at 3.0 to 3.4, and skills-and-drills clinics priced at $295 per person for each six-week session. The city listed Pernille, Christina, Javier and Doug as instructors, and said weather-related makeup sessions would be held at the end of each block.

That programming is as important as the construction. The new courts are not just a facelift for Scalzi Park, Stamford’s largest recreational area at 97 Bridge St., but a way to keep players moving from first exposure to structured improvement. The park also includes basketball and volleyball courts, running and hiking trails, a playground, a bocce ball court and Cubeta Stadium, home to Stamford American Legion and Babe Ruth baseball teams. Construction began on Oct. 1, 2025, and the reopening on May 22 marked the point when the long-promised upgrade became playable space.