Louisville Sports Commission
Come for the horses and bourbon, stay for the soccer, basketball, archery, volleyball, track and field, and just about every other sport.
Over the next few weeks, the city known worldwide as home of the Kentucky Derby will host the USA Cyclocross National Championships (at Joe Creason Park); National Fastpitch Coaches Association convention (just a few blocks from the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory); the NCAA Division I men’s soccer championship; and the USA Track & Field National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championship (E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park).
Highlights
No. of hotels/rooms: 185/23,000
Lodging taxes: 16.07% (7% state; 9.07% city)
Recent wins: 2024 USA Gymnastics Winter Cup; National Field Archery Association Indoor Nationals; United States Trampoline and Tumbling Association National Championships (generating 1,500 room nights and attracting 3,000 spectators per day); Junior Volleyball Association World Challenge (40,000 projected attendees). Additionally, the Ironman triathlon series is returning next summer for the first time since its 13-year run ended in 2019.
Résumé: ACC Indoor Track & Field Championship; USA Track & Field Masters Indoor Championship; USA BMX Derby City Nationals
Funding: 56% from Louisville Sports Commission owned and operated events; Louisville Tourism grant (24%); corporate partners (5%);
in-kind donations (15%)
Nearly all of the events were secured by the Louisville Sports Commission, whose current budget of $1.8 million is the largest ever, according to Lisa Mills, the organization’s vice president of marketing and public relations. The group owns and operates nine events, including the Live in Lou Cross Country Classic, the largest college cross-country meet in the U.S., annually attracting thousands of college athletes.
The surge in attracting events coincides with the recent $207 million renovation and expansion of the Kentucky International Convention Center (which now has 200,000 contiguous square feet); the $70 million, 15,304-seat, soccer-specific Lynn Family Stadium; and the opening of the $53 million Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center/Humana Outdoor Track & Field facility, which boasts one of only nine banked indoor tracks in the U.S. Additionally, the versatile KFC Yum! Center is the country’s largest arena by seating capacity at 22,090.
Churchill Downs is undergoing a $200 million transformation to be completed by the Derby’s 150th running in May. The 2023 event drew a record 150,335 fans and the average daily hotel room rate of $657 was the highest in the country that weekend, according to industry analyst Costar.
Off the playing field, a 168-room Canopy by Hilton is on schedule to open next July, and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail last year achieved record attendance of 2.1 million visits, a 38% increase from 2019.
