How much was the basketball court obama installed at the white house

1. The claim laid bare: an outrageous price tag that doesn't add up

The circulating assertion states Obama spent $376 million to install a White House basketball court—an amount that would far exceed typical costs for such projects and would require congressional approval and clear line-item documentation. Investigations find no record of a separate $376 million appropriation for a basketball court in 2009 or subsequent White House spending reports. Reporting repeatedly flags the figure as implausible and unsupported by publicly available procurement or budget records, and no official White House accounting attributes that sum to a courtside installation ^{[1] [4]}.

2. What actually happened at the South Lawn: a retrofit, not a palace of sport

White House archives and fact-checkers document that the Obamas adapted a mid-20th-century tennis court for dual use by adding hoops and court markings in 2009, rather than constructing a brand-new, elaborate basketball facility. This modification involved relatively minor physical changes to enable basketball play on the same surface as tennis and did not entail major construction or demolition. Sources emphasize the adaptation of an existing amenity rather than a standalone, costly project, and they note the lack of disclosed or itemized costs specifically for hoops and striping ^{[5] [4]}.

3. What the plausible price range looks like and funding gaps

Independent estimates for constructing or resurfacing an outdoor full-size court range widely—from roughly $17,000 to over $200,000 depending on materials and amenities—but remain orders of magnitude below $376 million. Fact-checking pieces compile typical market figures and conclude the basketball adaptation plausibly fell in the lower end of that spectrum. Crucially, reporting finds no clear public record about who paid for the hoops and markings, with some outlets noting the possibility of private funding, while others treat the cost as de minimis within broader maintenance budgets ^{[1] [4]}.

4. Where the $376 million figure actually comes from—and why it's misleading

The $376 million number appears tied to a larger Obama-era White House renovation program initiated around 2010 that addressed extensive internal systems—electrical, HVAC, fire suppression—and that was reported as a multimillion-dollar overhaul. That program was an approved, itemized renovation affecting building infrastructure, not the outdoor court. Conflating that comprehensive renovation budget with the modest tennis-to-basketball adaptation misattributes scope and funding, producing a politically charged falsehood that inflates a simple amenity upgrade into an extravagant misuse of funds ^{[3] [2]}.

5. How the falsehood spreads and the likely motives behind it

The misstatement resurfaces in political debates and social media amid comparisons of presidential renovations, often framed to suggest wasteful spending by Democrats while contrasting with later projects by other administrations. This pattern shows agenda-driven amplification: a minor or privately funded upgrade becomes a weaponized statistic when attached to a large renovation number. Fact-checkers flag the claim as a shortcut for partisan messaging rather than a reliable accounting of expenditures, and they note that lack of clear sourcing and sloppy aggregation of different budgets fuels the viral falsehood ^{[1] [6] [5]}.

6. Bottom line and how to verify similar claims in the future

The evidence is clear: Obama did not spend $376 million on a White House basketball court; the court was an adaptation of an existing tennis court and any work involved would be consistent with standard, much smaller costs or privately funded improvements. To verify similar claims, consult primary White House budget documents, congressional appropriations for specific fiscal years, and contemporaneous archived White House communications; rely on reputable fact-checks that distinguish between targeted line items and broad renovation totals ^{[4] [2] [1]}.