Utah has exploded onto the sports scene in recent years, and Salt Lake County is at the epicenter of that success.
Sports Business Journal recently ranked Salt Lake City as the 12th best sports business city of 2026, beating out six of the 11 U.S. cities hosting a World Cup match this summer.
“We’ve got an amazing reputation now across the world for a place to host phenomenal sports events,” president of Real Salt Lake and Utah Royals FC John Kimball told the crowd Wednesday at Visit Salt Lake’s fifth annual Sports Tourism Symposium.
He listed the Winter Olympics and the Korean and Bosnia and Herzegovina national teams training at the teams’ facilities ahead of and during this summer’s FIFA World Cup as proof.
According to Kimball, the state’s high altitude, Salt Lake City International Airport and “just how we host people” are key factors to the state’s reputation as a premier sports destination.
“People are now identifying Utah as an amazing place to come and train and to be treated well,” Kimball said. “(Inter) Miami mentioned us in the press that this was one of the best facilities that they’d ever come to, that they’ve been treated so well. So to get that kind of recognition from world-class teams, it just speaks volumes of who we are and how we handle people in our communities.”
What’s driving Utah’s sports tourism success?
In addition to its Sports Business Journal ranking, Salt Lake City’s sports tourism reputation grew after Sports Salt Lake, a division of Visit Salt Lake, was named Sports Events & Tourism Association’s Sports Tourism Organization of the Year in April.
“In 2025, we hosted 86 events, welcomed more than 525,000 attendees, filled hotels with 327,000 room nights, and generated an economic impact of over $193 million,” president and CEO of Visit Salt Lake Kaitlin Eskelson said in her opening remarks. “Those are big numbers. Those numbers represent real benefits for real people.”
Utah also boasts nearly 25 venues that can host sporting events, according to Clay Partain, chief sports officer of Visit Salt Lake.
While home to NBA, NHL, MLS and NWSL teams, the majority of Utah’s sports tourism success can be attributed to youth sports, and the same can be said nationwide.
The Sports Events and Tourism Association’s 2026 report found that over 64% of the sports tourism industry was driven by youth and amateur tournaments, or participatory sports, according to Partain.
“These are the parents traveling with little Susie to come play in her volleyball tournament at the convention center, or little Billy that’s going to play for three days at his baseball tournament. These are actually quietly bringing billions of dollars into the country,” Partain said.
Utah’s growing professional sports scene has helped the state attract and host various youth tournaments.
“The amenities and the assets that you have, the professional teams that you have are a great drawing tool to get more tournaments and events,” Partain said.
Partain pointed to the success of Real Salt Lake and Utah Royals FC and the excitement around the sport of soccer with the U.S. hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Utah already hosted the MLS Next Cup earlier this summer, and over the next month, it will also host the U.S. Youth Soccer Presidents Cup and U.S. Youth Soccer Boys National Championships, which Partain described as “the biggest youth soccer tournament that the state of Utah and Salt Lake have ever seen.”
“You’re talking about thousands of hotel room nights, hundreds of teams over the course of two weekends. So, very exciting,” Partain said.
A growing home for elite women’s sports
The Utah Talons of Athletes Unlimited Softball League, Utah’s third professional women’s sports team, began play last week.
In its inaugural 2025 season, the AUSL utilized a touring model with its four teams playing in 12 cities, including Salt Lake City, across the country.
But the league decided to move away from that model and establish permanent home markets for its six teams in 2026. Salt Lake City was chosen as one of them, becoming home to the inaugural AUSL champions.
“We came here intentionally and on purpose,” Sarah Padove, AUSL’s senior director of public affairs, said during the women’s sports panel. “There is a very real infrastructure on the youth side, robust programming and strong support locally.”
Utah was already home to the NWSL’s Utah Royals FC, currently ranked second in the league, and League One Volleyball’s LOVB Salt Lake, which made it to this season’s LOVB Championship.
Padove said the Talons are “reaping some of the benefits of the work” done by the Royals and LOVB Salt Lake to create the “existing women’s sports ecosystem” in Salt Lake County.
“It’s an awesome market, and just, I have no doubt it’s going to continue to soar,” she said.
All three of Utah’s professional women’s sports will be represented at the 2028 Olympics with the return of softball to the Olympic stage.
“It’s just such a unique market, right? I mean, you are talking a decade-plus, give or take, of opportunity that is ripe for growth and success here between the women’s pro sports ecosystem, 2028 with volleyball, soccer and softball in the Summer Olympics, right?” Padove said. “That leading into what’s happening here in 2034, no other market has that.”
Teams and communities can capitalize on that momentum through connecting Utah’s professional female athletes with their fans, especially youth, according to Courtney Thompson, LOVB’s vice president of athlete and coach experience.
“I think as we’re leaning into both the LA Olympics and then (the 2034 Olympics) here, the more that we can foster that as a community and do it better than anywhere else in the country — to be inclusive, to connect with other leagues, celebrate other athletes — I think that’s going to serve us very well,” Thompson said.
LOVB Salt Lake’s 2026 season concluded in April, and the Utah Royals are on a midseason break but resume play in Chicago on July 5. Until then, Utah women’s sports fans can support the Utah Talons by attending games at the University of Utah’s Dumke Family Softball Stadium before the regular season ends July 19.
