Starting next year, “pickleball-obsessed” Overland Park will be a stop on a national pickleball tournament tour and host other events for professional and amateur players alike.
The announcement was made on Tuesday at AdventHealth Sports Park at Bluhawk, which will be one of 12 stops to host an Association of Pickleball Players tournament annually for an initial five-year term starting in 2026.
Next year, the tournament in Overland Park will go from Sept. 16 to Sept. 20, and is expected to welcome roughly 200 professional players to battle it out on 29 courts at the Bluhawk sports facility.
Pickleball itself is on the rise, growing increasingly popular around the country and locally.
Recently, Overland Park was ranked as one of the most “pickleball-obsessed” cities in the U.S. in a national survey conducted by online betting guide aGamble.
Mayor Curt Skoog emphasized that sentiment at Tuesday’s announcement.
“We are pickleball-obsessed in Overland Park, so we’re excited about this event, he said.
3 pickleball events are planned annually in Overland Park
The Association of Pickleball Players tournament is expected to attract roughly 200 professional players, as well as nearly 1,000 amateurs, who will compete on the courts at the Bluhawk sports complex over four days in singles, doubles and mixed-play.
“We hope to be the shining star on your tour, and to attract the best pickleball players from around the country, maybe the world, here,” Skoog said.
On top of the tournament, the association will hold its collegiate tournament qualifier event in Overland Park, as well as its APPNext event, which is a developmental series, both at the Chicken N Pickle at Prairiefire.
Ryan McSpadden, the Association of Pickleball Players’ Chief Revenue Officer, said members of the public are invited to participate in any of these events, either as a player or a spectator. He described the environment around several APP events as a “festival atmosphere.”
Local, state elected officials laud what Bluhawk has become
Years ago, what is now the burgeoning Bluhawk mixed-use and tourism-focused district in southern Overland Park was just an idea.
Now, it’s a popular retail and dining destination that also attracts visitors from all over by hosting sporting events and athletic tournaments at the sports park.
“This day is a product of years of work by lots of people,” Skoog said.
The development was backed by $55 million in state Sales Tax and Revenue, or STAR, bonds, a type of incentive designed to support development that will spur “major entertainment or tourism destinations,” according to the Kansas Department of Commerce.
The debt accrued from the bonds issued with state and local approval to develop a project is then meant to be paid back over time with state and local sales taxes from within the project’s boundaries.
Without the initial vision for Bluhawk, the incentives and other factors, Skoog said, none of it would be possible.
Kansas Rep. Sean Tarwater — a Republican whose district covers a chunk of southeast Johnson County — said he sees the wider Bluhawk project as a model of “what STAR bonds [are] all about, really.”
“STAR bonds were built to create tourism, and they’re built off of sales taxes that are created by people coming in from out of state to spend their dollars,” he said. “We know Kansas does not have mountains and oceans to bring people to town, but we do have incredible people. We have great visionaries, and we have a lot of land, and we love our sports.”
Visit OP recruited pickleball tournament for years
Warren Wilkinson, President and CEO of Visit Overland Park, said his organization — which serves as the city’s tourism arm — has been working to recruit the pickleball association to come to the city and participate in the local economy for roughly two years.
“The selection of Overland Park and the AdventHealth Sports Park is further evidence of Overland Park’s attractiveness as a place to visit, live and work, and a place to compete,” he said. “It also is a testament to this amazing development here at Bluhawk; this purpose-built sports facility is a true magnet for economic impact for sports tourism.”
He anticipated that the pickleball tournament and other pickleball events could bring somewhere around $1 million to the local tourism economy.
McSpadden, the Association of Pickleball Players official who is himself an Overland Park native, also emphasized some of the qualities that drew his organization to host a tour stop in the city out of dozens of other prospective locations, mentioning the community and a breadth of corporate sponsorship potential.
He also stressed how important it is that the love for the game of pickleball is already present locally, with several leagues and courts already dedicated to the sport.
Looking ahead:
- The initial agreement has the Association of Pickleball Players hosting events in Overland Park and a tournament at Bluhawk for five years.
- However, multiple speakers on Tuesday suggested there was a collective interest in seeing that agreement extended beyond that, potentially for decades to come.
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