Coast to coast, small and mid-sized cities are establishing themselves as stellar destinations for sports tournaments and events. These communities invest in top-notch sports facilities, plus plenty of dynamic indoor and outdoor attractions for families and visitors to enjoy while they’re in town for events.
Anchorage, Alaska
It’s not uncommon to see a moose meandering down the street in Anchorage. About 1,500 moose live and wander through the city of nearly 300,000.
“We have things people equate with Alaska, whether it be wide open spaces or trails that go on forever,” says Jack Bonney, vice president of communications for Visit Anchorage. “You get plenty of elbow room, but you also have 8,000 hotel rooms and the largest airport in the state. The accessibility is there in a way people don’t typically expect.”
Ted Stevens International Airport is five miles from downtown Anchorage. The city is well known for hosting national and international ski competitions. Basketball is one of the state’s most popular sports, especially when teams across Alaska compete in March Madness tournaments.
“We have bigger and better infrastructure than most people expect,” Bonney says. “We have 110 athletic fields, five pools, and 11 recreation facilities, including more than eight full sheet ice rinks inside.”
Anchorage’s Sullivan Arena accommodates 6,000 to 8,000 people for hockey and basketball. The Alaska Airlines Center on the University of Alaska-Anchorage campus and Alaska Pacific University provide NCAA Division II basketball arena facilities, another hockey rink, and more. Anchorage’s full-sized Mulcahy Stadium hosts a summer collegiate-level baseball league.
With 135 miles of paved multi-use trails, Anchorage is exceptional for marathons and distance races and for unique competitions such as fat tire bike races and events during the National Veterans Golden Ages Games, which puts ex-military personnel to the test in competitions as varied as chess and air rifles.
A springtime event Bonney describes as iconic is the Native Youth Olympics, a competition dedicated to Alaska’s Indigenous sports.
“It’s open to every high schooler in Alaska. They’re a skill set you would need for traditional life in Alaska,” says Bonney. “It’s a draw because it is so uniquely Alaskan. You get folks from the community and people traveling from all over Alaska. You get some very dedicated parents and fans (for NYO and basketball tournaments) traveling great distances to cheer on their teams.”
Perhaps the city’s most surprising sport is its annual Midnight Suns rugby tournament. Bonney says the tournament occurs around the summer solstice when teams can play with about 22 hours of daylight.
To accommodate teams and sports fans, Anchorage boasts 8,000 hotel rooms plus an ethnically rich mix of restaurants, including Italian and Ethiopian eateries, and an abundance of seafood.
Alaska’s natural beauty is a perennial favorite with visitors to Anchorage. They can take helicopter tours that let them stand on a glacier or take one of many small sightseeing flights.
Chugach State Park near Anchorage leads to a vast, accessible Chugach National Forest. The state parks surrounding Anchorage offer hiking trails, glacier exploration, and more.
The city is Alaska’s cultural hub, says Bonney. Three theaters at the Alaska Center for Performing Arts host entertainment running the gamut from International Guitar Night to traveling Broadway shows, including “Hamilton.” “The Lion King” is coming in 2026.
“We can be a very sports-intense place. I don’t think we’re a one-trick pony by any stretch of the imagination,” Bonney says.
Westopolis, Minn.
St. Louis Park, population 50,000, and Golden Valley, population 22,000, are a testament to teamwork. Together, the cities are Westopolis, a sports community that benefits from creative partnerships and close proximity to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, an interstate highway system, downtown Minneapolis, the nation’s first women’s sports bar, the Mall of America, and plenty of ice.
“We host a lot of ice hockey. We are fortunate to have great facilities that have ice year-round,” says Karen McManamon, business development director for Westopolis.
Westopolis is hosting the U.S. Adult Figure Skating Championships in April. The fastest-growing ice sport, though, is women’s broomball. Westopolis hosted the Broomball National Championship in 2024. The sport attracts women of all ages who watch and play the mix of lacrosse and hockey. Broomball is easy to learn and fosters teammates’ camaraderie.
Westopolis primarily hosts youth and amateur sports and many tournaments for soccer, baseball, basketball, cross country, cornhole, spikeball, and quadball.
“We recently hosted Major League Quadball. We’ve a very diverse, inclusive city so it’s very attracting to them to come here, and Major League Quadball has a big following. There’s two teams at the University of Minnesota,” McManamon says. “We are a Big 10 sport city.”
Multi-use fields, such as St. Louis Park’s Recreation Outdoor Center’s ice rink, are a must. During the spring and summer, it transforms into turf for baseball, softball, soccer, and lacrosse.
Becky Bakken, Westopolis president and CEO, says teaming up with city facilities and local private and public schools equips Westopolis to provide venues for sports and appealing perks such as free parking.
“When you’re a smaller community, you don’t have a sports complex. You have to be really creative,” says Bakken. “You have to have multi-purpose fields. You have to get really strategic. That’s something we do really well with our city and our city partners.”
“We want to work with anybody, and we will be the best concierge in the world,” she adds. “You really have to be ready to listen and build relationships.”
Westopolis has nine hotels, two conference hotels, more than 75 restaurants, and dozens of parks and trails for recreation. Families and groups like Westopolis’ food-and-activity centers such as Punchbowl Social. Park Tavern offers bowling, arcade games, and professional cornhole, Bakken said. Brookview has Minnesota’s largest outdoor lawn bowling facility, used for pub curling in the winter.
Though downtown Minneapolis and a host of shops and amenities are minutes away, the region’s seven professional sports teams are always a prime attraction.
“The fact that Minnesota has all of these professional sports teams is a huge opportunity for us. For us to be so close to them, whether it’s summer, fall, or winter, there’s also that professional sports experience, which is a good selling tool,” Bakken says.
Marlborough, Mass.
Marlborough, population 43,000, is home to one of North America’s largest indoor skating facilities. The city’s New England Sports Center contains eight full-size rinks, a mini rink, and a studio rink. The NESC attracts Boston Junior Bruins tournaments, the American Collegiate Hockey Association club tournament, figure skating teams, and more.
“More than 80 percent of professional hockey players have played there at one point or another. We are a hockey city,” says Lindsey Jaworek, business outreach manager for the Marlborough Economic Development Corporation.
“We’ve always been a sports-minded city that’s made lots of investments in our youth sports, our high school sports, and the New England Sports Center,” she adds.
Off the ice, Marlborough is a year-round sports destination that hosts baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse, pickleball, volleyball and sand volleyball, skateboarding, soccer and softball, and more. The city’s sports venues include 10 natural baseball fields, two outdoor lighted turf fields, an 18-hole golf course, 11 soccer fields, softball fields, tennis courts, four volleyball courts, and 26.2 miles of connected walking trails throughout the city.
Marlborough also is home to the Special Olympics of Massachusetts Athletic Training Center.
Marlborough’s neighboring city, Northborough, has a dedicated baseball complex and a new soccer complex. Marlborough is centrally located in New England, near Boston and Providence, R.I., which host their hockey, basketball, and other sports tournaments.
Because sports are the city’s main tourist attraction, Jaworek says, Marlborough has invested in facilities and attractions to appeal to families, athletes, and visitors coming in for sports tourism. The city’s Apex Entertainment Center is New England’s largest indoor entertainment complex, with 30 lanes of bowling, a multilevel indoor go-cart track, laser tag, a kids’ play area, a restaurant, bar, meeting and party spaces, and more.
“You can stay right where you’re playing (sports). The facilities, restaurants, and activities at Apex Entertainment Center are built to support what athletes and families do,” Jaworek explains.
The complex is surrounded by nine hotels boasting the highest number of hotel rooms outside of Boston, along with many of the city’s more than 100 restaurants.
Marlborough’s recreation options showcase the region’s beautiful outdoors. A 1.5-mile floating boardwalk borders Lake Williams, or hikers can traverse the 10.5-mile paved Assabet River Rail Trail that connects five towns.
As the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday in 2026, Jaworek says the region’s rich history appeals to visitors.
“Our office of economic development is really helpful because whenever tournaments are coming in, we can connect them with what they need for amenities—the hotels, the restaurants. We see the value in sports tourism,” says Jaworek. “We’re able to create the right experience for anyone looking to come here.”
