ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — 2026 is set to be a historic year for Asheville sports. Following the SoCon basketball tournament this weekend, track, baseball and golf championships have each been scheduled for later this year. Officials hope the events will bring a major tourism boost with them.
The three events will be:
- NAIA Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field National Championships, May 20-22, to be held at Karl Straus Track, University of North Carolina Asheville, 600 Wellness Way
- Big South Baseball Championship, May 20-23, to be held at the newly renovated Asheville Tourists McCormick Field, 30 Buchanan Place
- Biltmore Championship Asheville, Sept. 17-20, to be held at The Cliffs at Walnut Cove, 40 Club Village Way
Explore Asheville, the city’s tourism and development board, held a press conference earlier today to discuss details and the impact the tournaments might have on the local economy.
For example, around 1,300 athletes will compete in the NAIA track tournament. The same weekend, six different baseball teams will participate in the Big South tournament across town. Together, the competitions will attract double their number in audience.
“Families come and watch their children compete, and I think it averages about two and a half people per person. But we’re talking about up to 3,000, 3,500 people, who will be right here in downtown Asheville, over on our campus, to watch track every day,” said Janet Cone, Director of Athletics at UNC Asheville.
“We’ll make a lot of economic impact here for our restaurants and our hotels. You know, the thing that we’ve also seen with all of these championships, people come to watch a championship, and guess what? They come back later, ’cause they want to see more of Asheville.”
A slideshow during the Explore Asheville presentation included estimates for the financial footprint the tournaments will have. “Direct spending in the community,” for instance, was estimated at $1.3 million from NAIA attendees, $750,000 from Big South baseball fans and anywhere from $15-30 million from the Biltmore Championship, which will bring the PGA TOUR golf apparatus to Asheville for the first time in more than 80 years.
More information about all three events will be released in the months to come. Keep up with the latest updates on the Explore Asheville website, www.exploreasheville.com.