With no public pickleball courts and demand for the fast-growing sport at a fever pitch, Arlington officials want to add new courts to a popular tennis hotspot.

On Tuesday, Sept. 2, the Arlington Board of Mayor and Aldermen unanimously approved the start of planning for a pickleball and possibly tennis court expansion at the Arlington Tennis Center on Memphis-Arlington Road.

Mayor Mike Wissman said adding pickleball courts has been a top request from residents in the past several years.

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“It’s amazing to see how many kids and adults are going to other communities to play this until all hours of the night,” he said. “I’m proud that we’re able to get some movement on this.”

The Arlington Tennis Center and its six lighted courts opened in 2019 next to the town’s Sports Complex. That project was a joint effort between the Town of Arlington and Arlington Community Schools with the school system pitching in $400,000 of the $1.8 million cost.

Town Administrator Cathy Durant explained it was always considered a Phase 1 with a second phase coming at an undetermined later date.

Kimley-Horn will handle the designs for the expansion. They also created the town’s parks master plan approved last year.

Durant contacted the firm in July of last year for some early ideas, which produced one concept for 14 pickleball courts.

“What we would do is build those pickleball courts in such a way that if pickleball fades away at some point, or is not utilized as much as we think it will be, that those courts can be (converted) to additional tennis courts,” Durant said.

Alderman Jeremy Biggs wondered aloud about the number of pickleball courts versus a need for additional tennis courts.

“Fourteen pickleball courts seems like a lot to me,” he said.

Durant explained original thoughts had been revised, now showing 12 pickleball courts and two tennis courts. A new shaded area and hitting practice wall are also part of the discussions.

Julie Moultrie, director of the Arlington Tennis Organization and Arlington Middle tennis coach, explained part of the reason existing tennis courts are so full is pickleball players are forced into using the tennis configuration.

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“I’m an avid supporter of pickleball. I love the sport. We need pickleball courts first before we need more tennis courts,” she said, noting there could be 15-20 pickleballers on each court some nights.

At the same time, she would love to see new tennis courts in the expansion.

“We’ve got 40 kids on the middle school team that are out there for hours just for the chance to play once,” Moultrie said.

Resident Robert Henegar, 64, who lives directly across from the tennis courts, liked the news.

“I’ve been coming up for five years trying to get them to do it,” he said. “I think it has something to do with Lakeland getting their $900,000 grant and posting that they’re building pickleball courts. That lit the fire under them.”

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Looking to the future, Wissman sees the possibility of other smaller pickleball areas on town-owned parcels.

“We have 80-something acres we’re waiting to add on to our town land,” he said, referring to state-owned property Arlington is acquiring north of Interstate 40 along Milton Wilson Boulevard.

Durant hopes to open the town’s first official pickleball courts within the next year.