McCarren Park Tennis Courts

McCarren Park Tennis Courts sits on the north edge of McCarren Park, straddling the Greenpoint and Williamsburg border, with entrances near Lorimer Street and Driggs Avenue along the North 12th and 13th Street corridor between Berry Street and Bedford Avenue. The facility has seven full-size hard courts, plus two permanent 36-foot QuickStart mini courts added during the 2010 renovation (some sources count eight total for that reason, but the full-size court count is seven).

Getting here by transit is straightforward. The L train stops at Lorimer Street, roughly 0.2 miles away, and at Bedford Avenue, about 0.3 miles away. The G train at Nassau Avenue is approximately 0.4 miles from the courts. Both options put you within a short walk.

Only three of the seven courts have lights, so evening play is limited to those.

In season McCarren runs two systems side by side. Two courts are set aside for NYC Parks online reservations: $15 per court per hour, bookable up to seven days ahead, no same-day bookings, and the online window runs roughly from late April to mid-September. The other five full-size courts are walk-on: a Parks attendant (quite a character) keeps a courtside queue and takes your name, and you play in the order you arrived. Either way every player needs an NYC Parks permit, the $100 adult season permit or a $15 single-play pass, which you can also buy online when you reserve.

The queue is real but shallower than Fort Greene's. Waiting courtside under the trees with a book is the standard McCarren experience. Weekday mornings are the easiest walk-up. Evenings compete for the three lit courts.

The season runs April 1 through the Sunday before Thanksgiving. From about November through April a private operator covers the courts with a heated bubble and sells indoor court time by the hour, so winter play is paid and booked through that operator, not through NYC Parks.

The courts have an unusually direct community history. In 2010, regular players privately funded the resurfacing of a single court. That grassroots effort attracted the attention of the USTA and American Express, who partnered through the Fresh Courts Initiative to renovate all seven courts ahead of that year's US Open season. It is a rare case of player-driven investment leading to a full facility upgrade.

The level of play skews toward high-intermediate and advanced, and a manageable wait-time culture, managed by the Parks attendant on site, makes McCarren one of the more serious outdoor venues in Brooklyn rather than a casual drop-in spot. The McCarren Tennis Association runs clinics, ladders and socials out of these courts, which is why the crowd here knows each other.

For more places to play, see the best public tennis courts in NYC or browse every court in the city. Then find a partner at your level on Doyouplay before you go.