State, Maui County trying to boost sports tourism, targeting events for competitors on way to 2028 Los Angeles Olympics

Imagine Olympic competitors from around the world stopping at Ho‘okipa and Kanahā beach parks on Maui to practice windsurfing or kite surfing before going to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Or Olympic surfers catching waves at the mecca of the sport, the North Shore of O‘ahu.

Or Olympic baseball qualification rounds being played at Ichiro “Iron” Maehara Stadium in Wailuku and Les Murakami Stadium in Mānoa, O‘ahu.

It even could be possible for flag football teams to work out at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletic Complex on the University of Hawai‘i campus or War Memorial Stadium in Wailuku.

It’s all part of the state of Hawai‘i’s plan to try to attract sports tourism — and spur the economy — by taking advantage of the next Summer Olympics, which are 1,007 days away.

“We’re trying to get some of the games’ teams to stop here before they go to Los Angeles, to have preliminaries in Hawai‘i,” said James Tokioka, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. “And surfing certainly could be one of them, especially with the Asian countries or New Zealand, any of those countries that enter the surfing competitions.”

The state also is trying to lure volleyball and other sports teams to come to Hawai‘i for preliminary matches, he said.

Keith Amemiya, head of Hawaiʻi Gov. Josh Green’s sports task force, said the link to Olympic sports is a “fantastic idea. It’ll be a win-win for both the teams traveling to L.A. and the state of Hawai‘i. Already there’s interest in companies and individuals in helping finance these efforts.”

For many countries, Hawaiʻi is a logical geographical stop on the way to Los Angeles.

The push for Olympic-based tourism comes at a time when Maui is reeling from the loss of The Sentry golf tournament that was canceled at Kapalua Plantation Course — its home for the past 27 years — due to water shortages that made the course unplayable for elite golfers. The PGA Tour’s prestigious season-opener was an estimated $50 million boost annually to the economy.

Maui also lost the Xterra off-road triathlon after a 25-year run here ended after the world championship of the race ran at Kapalua in 2021. It moved to Trentino, Italy, for the 2022 race. J-D Cousens, Xterra Vice President of Operations & Global Marketing, said in a 2022 article on Sports Destination Management website that “Maui is our birthplace; we will return one day,” but the event has not returned yet.

Now, Maui County appears to be in the mix for Olympic sports tourism revenue.

“Supporting athletic events and opportunities helps Maui strengthen and diversify our economy — it boosts local businesses, creates sustainable jobs, and inspires our youth,” Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said in a statement emailed to Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative. “These efforts go beyond the field or court. They’re about uplifting our community and sharing the spirit of aloha with everyone who comes here.” 

In Ho‘okipa and Kanahā, Maui boasts two of the most premier beaches and wind conditions for the sports of windsurfing and kite surfing in the world. Kite surfing, labeled kite sailing for Olympic competition, was added to the Olympic docket in Paris in 2024. Windsurfing, labeled boardsailing, was first held in the Olympics in 1984.

Kula resident Mike Yasak, a 68-year-old who has been competing in windsurfing on Maui for more than 40 years, has won three U.S. Windsurfing age division national championships at Kanahā Beach Park and also claimed the semi-pro division championship in 2019, the last time the event was held at Kanahā.

“Kanahā Beach is one of the best places in the world for slalom racing,” Yasak said Thursday. National windsurfing championships were held at Kanahā Beach Park in 1993, 1998, 2006 and 2019.

Maui’s Kim Ball, the owner of Hi-Tech Surf Sports and the founder of high school surfing in the state, was the contest organizer for the national windsurfing events in 1993, 1998 and 2006.

Boardsailing, an early form of windsurfing, was first added to the Olympic docket in 1984 when the games were last in Los Angeles.

The 1993 and 1998 events here “were back in the heyday of windsurfing,” Ball said.

The 1993 event was the first to be held away from the Mainland.

“There was a lot of opposition from the board of directors or U.S. Windsurfing because that was the third time we submitted a proposal,” Ball said. “It turned out to be the most successful nationals ever as far as participation and windsurfing conditions.”

Ball believes that Maui is a natural venue for windsurfers and kite competitors to work out prior to the L.A. games. Events held here prior to the games would be a natural draw for tourists as well, Ball said. The Professional Windsurfers Association’s Aloha Classic, Maui — Wave Finals event is set to run later this month at Ho‘okipa Beach Park.

“There’s a lot of different Olympic sports that probably could find possible venues here, places for competitors working out prior to the games,” Ball said, adding that he would like to see sports like a high-level wrestling tournament also be held here on the way to the games.

“We need to expand our thinking in different areas and it’s very competitive out there for the tourist dollar now,” he said. “And sporting events are a natural. … Everybody wants to come to Hawaiʻi. So an Olympic-type sporting event would be a great excuse.”

Ball added that the opportunity for Asian and South Pacific countries to acclimate here prior to the games would work well, especially with the good weather for any outdoor sport. 

“It’s a great training stopover place,” Ball said. “It’d be a natural.” 

The state also is courting other sports. Green said last month that an Ultimate Fighting Championship card is a possibility for O‘ahu when UFC founder Dan White and Max Holloway of O‘ahu visited West Maui recently. Holloway is considered one of the greatest featherweights of all-time.

“Dana White says there is a higher rate of interest in the UFC in Hawaiʻi than anywhere else in the country, with the possible exception of Nevada,” Green said in a statement emailed to Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative. “We have a homegrown star like Max Holloway, who inspires so many local youth.”

Green added: “We want to bring UFC to Hawaiʻi. We’ve also talked to some of the benefactors of the UFC to do that, but it’s not just going to be one fight. What we’d like to do is a partnership with UFC where we can perhaps bring a training facility like they have in Las Vegas, to the (Aloha) Stadium district.”

Green said discussions with the UFC will continue “over the coming months. It would be a great economic opportunity for Hawaiʻi that would benefit local people and visitors who are UFC fans.”

Ball said that like Mixed Martial Arts, surfing also is a natural tourist draw for the state. 

Ball was the driving force behind high school surfing in the Maui Interscholastic League. After 11 years of it being an official high school sport here, it was recently adopted as a high school sport statewide. Ball said that could lead to more competition at that age level between Australia and other surf states including California and Florida.

Ball said he would like to see more support for surfing from the state because “All the top competitors to come here and compete. … I think we need to be creative with the way we promote surfing.”

The War Memorial Gym in Wailuku, which seats 2,892, is undergoing an estimated $28.5 million in renovations and now is expected to open in “early summer of 2026,” according to Maui County Parks and Recreation Director Pat McCall.

McCall added that the $8.62 million in renovations being done to War Memorial Stadium, which can seat about 15,000, is still slated to be done in time for the 2026 Maui Interscholastic League football season.

The Los Angeles Rams held their 2025 mini-camp in the football stadium in June before the start of the renovations.

McCall said that when those two main venues in the War Memorial Complex are completed, University of Hawaiʻi sports including men’s and women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s basketball, and football will also be possibilities to play here.

The UH women’s basketball team is slated to play Liberty University on Dec. 19 and Montana State University on Dec. 20, both at Seabury Hall’s Erdman Athletic Center, in the Maui Classic tournament hosted by Oregon State University.

McCall said the earliest UH football likely could play at the War Memorial Stadium is in 2027, “because those schedules are done so far in advance.”

McCall added that the Rams visit was an example of a “win-win” because of the community work the Los Angeles players did in helping build a house in Lahaina for a family of wildfire survivors. McCall noted that the team also held a football clinic for high school boys and girls, a team walkthrough attended for free by 6,000 members of the public, and an “NFL Play 60” event for 1,200 children in the Maui County Summer PALS program.

“I really want to look for more opportunities like that because that will be a win-win for everybody,” McCall said.

Tokioka said the state paid $1.8 million to entice the Rams to come to Maui and that there is a state option for 2026 to the contract. If the Rams do not come back next summer, Tokioka said the state has had conversations with the Las Vegas Raiders, San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Chargers to come to the state.

The Southwest Maui Invitational college basketball tournament is set to take place again at the Lahaina Civic Center. This year’s tourney, with all 12 games televised on ESPN or ESPN2, will run Nov. 24-26. The eight teams in the tournament are Seton Hall, North Carolina State, Southern California, Boise State, Arizona State, Washington State, Texas and Chaminade.

The Lahaina Civic Center underwent $3.7 million in renovations, with a new floor and air conditioning system completed in August. The facility closed last week in preparation for the Maui Invitational.

The Maui Invitational has been held on Maui since 1984 with the exceptions of 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and 2023 due to the Lahaina wildfire. Once the unquestioned leader of early season college basketball tournaments, the event is now challenged for attention by several other events.

For example, the Players Era Tournament in Las Vegas is paying all 18 of its men’s teams $1 million apiece in Name, Image and Likeness money that is split between the players on each roster. That event takes place on the same days as the Maui Invitational and the championship team will receive another $1 million.

“It’s certainly getting more difficult to attract top-notch teams to the Maui Invitational because of the enormous sums of money being offered to teams for tournaments during the same week as the Maui Invitational,” Amemiya said.

The Maui Invitational is estimated to bring about 6,000 visitors to the island, with an estimated economic impact of $24 million.

Mark Rolfing, an analyst for The Golf Channel and NBC Sports who lives in Kapalua, pointed out that the 2000 U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team spent several days at the Lahaina Civic Center for workouts on its way to the games in Sydney, Australia.

“We were at the top of the mountain then, but since then we have fallen off in this area,” Rolfing said.

Losing The Sentry PGA Tour event is a major blow, but something the state can learn from, Rolfing added. He said the state “desperately” needs a sports commission, something that is common throughout the nation.

“Every town in America, every major city has a sports commission — we need one here, desperately,” Rolfing said. “You have to that, something that manages your sports business. I think there’s 700 of them in America.”

Amemiya said, “It’s something worth considering, but the commission needs to be provided with ample influence and resources” to be effective.