With the summer Olympic games just around the corner, the trials to make the USA Olympic team are well underway across a multitude of disciplines. One sport that always seems to drum up excitement every four years? Swimming. Thanks to a decade-long string of dominating athletes, a renewed competition between the U.S. national team and Australia and greater interest in the sport, swimming has grown in importance to spectators and participants alike. Even retailers are taking note of the increase in popularity; J.Crew launched a collaborative collection with USA Swimming a few weeks ago, with many of the pieces selling out.
USA Swimming held its Olympic trials from June 15-23 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, the first time the swim meet was held at an NFL stadium, its largest venue ever. The stadium was retrofitted to hold three pools on the football field, creating a stage and atmosphere unlike ever before. Unsurprisingly, the change in venue brought not only new attention to the sport, but also a higher number of spectators.
According to Placer’s foot traffic insights, the 2024 swimming trials saw total visit volumes almost triple compared to the event in 2021, held at the CHI Health Center in Omaha. Daily traffic at Lucas Oil Stadium was about one third of the typical visit counts on a Sunday during the NFL season; but, for a sport that usually only gets noticed every four years, that’s a pretty strong indicator of increasing popularity. The 2021 trials were delayed due to the pandemic and certainly may have been impacted by health and safety restrictions. However, the fanfare and excitement around the new location of the trials certainly delivered in bringing the crowds.
The average visit duration during the 2024 Olympic trials was 147 minutes, up slightly from the trials in 2021. Holding an event like this in an NFL stadium certainly provides more amenities to spectators and participants than previous trials and may be considered in future planning of the event.
According to USA Swimming’s membership report, the Midwest over-indexes in its member count compared to other regions of the U.S., which provides insight into the selection of Indianapolis as host city for these trials. For locals and visitors alike, visiting the trials meant traveling to other places before and after the meet. Top favorite locations for visitors included the convention center, which held the Toyota Aqua Zone during the event, the Omni Severin Hotel and the JW Marriott Indianapolis, as well as the Circle Centre Mall located in downtown Indianapolis. As we’ve noted in the past with major events like concerts, local businesses and tourism greatly benefit from increased foot traffic, but this further illustrates that non-major sporting events can also carry their weight.
With less than a month until the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, the excitement is palpable across the U.S. as athlete rosters are finalized. Seeing the growth in traffic of the swimming trials alone, it’s clear that even sports that draw eyeballs ever four years continue to grow interest and participation. Based on the success of drawing visitors to Lucas Oil Stadium this month, we anticipate that NFL stadiums may become the new venue of choice for USA Swimming and other Olympic sports.
