Let’s bring pickleball, the country’s most accessible and multigenerational sport, to the National Mall, the country’s most iconic and inclusive recreational space. The game for everybody in the place for everybody.

The resulting National Mall of Pickleball was a free, three-day event set next to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, across nine temporary pickleball courts, including one center court with grandstands. Programming included “Mall of Famers” matches with celebrities Rob Riggle and Katie Couric, a DC-area recreation league tournament, on-site pickleball lessons, an “in the kitchen” cooking demo with former White House Chef Andre Rush, match play with Major League Pickleball’s DC Pickleball Team, and a media tournament where all the bureaus of the Washington Press corps competed—from the New York Times to the Washington Post to Fox News.