By Rachel Simon
When the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) first partnered with the town of Cary to host its soccer championships back in 2003, the choice raised some eyebrows: Could a quiet community with barely 100,000 residents really offer a world-class event experience to sports fans?
The answer came quickly: Absolutely. That first College Cup tournament, held at the then-new WakeMed Soccer Park, was such a success that the NCAA returned to Cary year after year – and not just for soccer, but for baseball, tennis, and more. “We proved to the NCAA and really to ourselves that we could put on a really fantastic championship,” remembers Chris Duty, the Assistant Division Manager with Cary’s Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources Department.
In 2009, the town was deemed an official NCAA Championship City, one of just six U.S. places chosen for the honor – by far the smallest on the list, an outlier amongst huge cities like Indianapolis and San Diego. “Cary,” recalls Tori Collins, Director of the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance (GRSA), “was a little gem in the mix of everything.”
Since that very first College Cup 33 years ago, that “little gem” has become one of America’s most popular hubs for sports championships, hosting over 50 NCAA tournaments as well as dozens of events with organizations like USA Baseball, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), and the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA). This year, Cary is also playing home to noteworthy competitions such as The Soccer Tournament (TST) and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Tennis Championships. And for the very first time, the town will also run both the women’s and men’s NCAA College Cups over one busy December weekend.
So what makes Cary such a special place for some of sports’ biggest moments? The town’s premier facilities and proximity to Raleigh-Durham International Airport may be factors, but according to Duty, the real draw is the “emphasis” Cary puts on ensuring everyone involved in a championship – the athletes, the coaches, the staff, and the fans – has the best experience possible from beginning to end. “We roll out the red carpet when it comes to putting on sporting events,” says Duty.
Indeed, whether it’s a high-stakes collegiate tournament or a lower-key youth competition, no detail is overlooked. Athletes’ families are booked in top-tier hotel rooms (with financial help from the GRSA); fields and locker rooms are kept permanently pristine; spectators from across the world are connected with a weekend’s worth of dining and activities. “When we run events, we think not just about the event but also, ‘how can we make it better for the folks who are coming in from out of town?’” explains Duty.
The efforts have paid off; in 2023, over 10.5 million visitors came to Cary for its sports offerings, contributing nearly $300 million to the town’s economy. In the years since, those numbers have skyrocketed, as has the Triangle’s local population. In the coming months, both visitors and residents alike will have plenty of opportunities to enjoy Cary’s premier sports experience. First up is the TST (The Soccer Tournament), a star-studded 7 vs. 7 World Championship festival that runs through early June at WakeMed Soccer Park and offers three $1 million prizes to the winners; last year’s tournament saw 51,000 attendees, celebrity players like Luis Nani and Carli Loyd,and the debut of TST’s youth component, The Cary Cup. This past October, it was announced that the TST would remain in Cary through 2029. “We would love for them to make Cary their permanent home and never leave it,” says Collins.
Ecomonic Impact of Sports Events Cary 2025
- $38.7 Million total impact
- $11 Million TST Alone
- 62,000 Hotel Rooms Booked
This season also features the NCAA Division II Baseball Championship, held in June at the sprawling USA Baseball National Training Complex. USA Baseball calls the USA Baseball National Training Complex its official home base, offering training facilities and hosting games for its top amateur and collegiate talents. “Citizens come out and see these young players on the field here, and then they see them in a few years playing in the MLB and making millions of dollars,” says Duty.
Other upcoming highlights include the Cary Tennis Classic at Cary Tennis Park, the World Rugby Nations Cup (USA vs. Spain) at WakeMed Soccer Park, and the Veolia Pickleball National Championships at Cary Tennis Park. And there may be even more sports in the mix sooner than later. Duty notes that as Cary’s profile has grown in the athletic world, organizers have gotten an increasing number of requests to host new events, from football and lacrosse championships to ultimate frisbee competitions.
“We’re open to anything – we like to think outside the box,” Duty says. “If we don’t have a space that would work for it, we’ll ask ourselves, ‘could we create a space that would work for it?’”
Must Do’s while in Cary
No matter how many top-level championships Cary hosts, though, there will always be room for amateur athletes and residents to enjoy the town’s venues, too. “Our parks are designed for our community first and foremost,” says Duty, noting that town officials work hard to balance national events with local games and casual play. “If we didn’t provide field space for soccer training or baseball space to play games,” he adds, “that’d be a loss.”
It all goes back to Cary’s central tenet of making sure that every sports fan has the best experience they can get. “Really,” says Duty, “that’s what we’re all about.”
