CrossFit championships, the Pickleball Open, Top Gun fast-pitch softball tournaments — these are all sporting events on the calendar in 2026 that are expected to draw hundreds, if not thousands, of visitors to Overland Park.

They’re all examples of sports tourism as well, a multibillion-dollar industry in the United States that’s seen major gains in the past decade or so.

Visit Overland Park — the nonprofit that serves as the city’s official visitor and tourism organization — wants to see Overland Park get a bigger cut of that economic impact.

“We have a significant opportunity in Overland Park, Kansas,” said Eric Olson, Visit OP’s vice president of sports tourism and events, “to bring in economic-impacting tournaments or events to the city that ultimately, at the end of the day, create a benefit.”

For one thing, the location helps a lot: Olson said Overland Park’s central location in the continental United States makes it easy to access for a wider range of potential competitors and participants.

The facilities are also good, too, Olson added.

Places like Scheels Overland Park Soccer Complex on 135th Street and Switzer Road and the still-new AdventHealth Sports Park at Bluhawk, as well as school district-owned athletic facilities in Blue Valley and the Shawnee Mission school districts, are all ripe for hosting any number of sporting events.

Then, add in amenities, like the Overland Park Arboretum, Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead and even the Overland Park Farmers’ Market, which provide entertainment opportunities during downtime for participants.

“It’s a really dynamic offering,” Olson said, adding that one of the best parts of his job is seeing visitors find their belief that this area is flyover country debunked. “It’s probably one of the best-kept secrets.”

Sports tourism has a $950M+ impact on local economy

Those sports tourism events in Overland Park mean the people who participate, compete or watch them are also shopping, dining and staying in the city. When they go back home, their sales tax and hotel tax dollars stay behind.

In a 2024 report commissioned by Visit OP, Oxford Economics found that visitors had a roughly $964 million impact on the local economy, through direct sales and visitor spending.

The report also estimated that visitor-generated state and local government tax revenues in Overland Park offset more than $1,000 in taxes that residents would pay themselves if not for the tourism.

“With property tax and other taxes in the state of Kansas being a very hot topic, this is something that has a direct line of sight of alleviating those [tax] pressures to Overland Park households,” Olson said.

More than “ball and bat” sports

Overland Park will play host to multiple sporting events this year that are expected to draw thousands of participants.

Next month, a few hundred softball teams will come to Overland Park for the Top Gun Ranger Invitational tournament. Throughout the rest of the year, Top Gun is scheduled to hold more softball tournaments in Overland Park and Shawnee.

But, Olson said sports tourism goes beyond the typical “ball and bat” sporting events people are used to, like soccer, baseball, football and volleyball. And, it’s more than traveling youth sports.

For instance, Overland Park is hosting a 1,000-competitor CrossFit competition called the Monster Games this summer at the Overland Park Convention Center. That event will bring people from 42 different states and four countries, Olson said.

This past March, Bluhawk hosted the Kansas City Signature Open for the American Cornhole League competition that was broadcast on ESPN.

Olson also thinks Overland Park, with the soccer fields, would be an ideal place to host a Quidditch (sometimes called Quadball) tournament, inspired by the Harry Potter book franchise, as that game grows in popularity.

Visit OP wants more sports tourism in Overland Park

All of this comes as Overland Park’s own profile on the sports tourism front is growing nationally.

Olson, who has been leading that effort for Visit OP for about four years now, was recently appointed to serve a three-year term on the board of directors for the Sports Events & Tourism Association.

That’s a national trade association for sports tourism made up of destination marketing organizations like Visit OP, sports commissions, event operators and organizers, as well as vendors and consultants.

Olson has been a member of Sports ETA for about 15 years now, but he now has a seat at the table at the top. He sees it as a “tip of the cap” for Overland Park and an opportunity to “shine a spotlight on what we do really well.”

“It’s emblematic of some of the great things that we’ve been doing here in Overland Park,” he said. “The events that we are bringing in, respective to the great facilities we have here in Overland Park, and the diversity of those sports that are bringing measurable impact to the community.”

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