RowFest Awarded Best New Sports Event at 2025 SportsTravel Awards

The Northstar Meetings Group announced the winners of the 2025 SportsTravel Awards during the TEAMS ’25 Conference & Expo in Columbus, Ohio, honoring the best events, new venue and host city in the sports-event industry.

TEAMS: Travel, Events And Management in Sports, is the world’s largest gathering of event organizers and travel planners from the sports industry. TEAMS ’25 was held at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. The National Congress of State Games also announced the winners of its Athlete of the Year awards during the awards ceremony and Compete Sports Network recognized its Person of the Year.

The 2025 SportsTravel Award winners are:

Best Amateur Sports Event — 2025 USA Fencing National Championships / Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Over the course of 10 days, more than 6,000 athletes from across the country competed. The event attracted over 11,000 total attendees and generated an estimated $10.7 million in estimated economic impact for the city. USA Fencing worked closely with the Wisconsin Center District and Visit Milwaukee to coordinate scheduling, load-in logistics, hospitality services and athlete support across nearly 300,000 square feet of exhibit space. This was the first major sports tournament to take place inside the recently expanded Baird Center.

Best Collegiate Sports Event — 2025 SEC Women’s Basketball Championship / Greenville, South Carolina
In its third consecutive time in Greenville, the event produced $19.5 million in estimated economic impact, including $12.4 million in direct business sales and over $334,000 in local tax revenue. The tournament supported 3,974 jobs and created 132 full-time annual equivalents, directly benefiting the local workforce and contributing to long-term economic stability. Visitor activity translated into 20,701 hotel room nights generated throughout the county.

Best Professional Sports Event — 2025 4 Nations Face-Off / Boston, Montreal

The new international concept from the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association featured squads representing the United States, Canada, Sweden and Finland facing off in games across Montreal and Boston, igniting new levels of fandom as Canada beat the United States in overtime in the final. An estimated 16.1 million viewers watched the final in North America, the second-most watched hockey game in the past decade. Overall, the seven-game tournament averaged 6.5 million viewers across North America, up 256 percent from the World Cup of Hockey 2016.

Best New Sports Event — 2024 RowFest / Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

This inaugural USRowing event brought together athletes, families, coaches and fans from across the country for a one-of-a-kind festival that blended elite competition, athlete development and community celebration. Spanning multiple days and disciplines including traditional racing, sprint racing under the lights, youth, masters, U23, and adaptive events, RowFest delivered an immersive experience that pushed the boundaries of what a rowing event can be. 

Best New or Renovated Sports Venue — Centreville Bank Stadium / Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Rhode Island’s first soccer-specific stadium, built for the USL Championship Rhode Island FC, has added to the region’s sports and entertainment landscape. The stadium opened to a sold-out debut game that drew 10,700 fans and is one of the most sustainable venues in the country, featuring all-LED lighting, advanced stormwater management and energy efficiency programs developed in partnership with Rhode Island Energy. In June it hosted the 2025 Major League Rugby Championship.

Best Sports Host City — Wichita, Kansas
Wichita hosted sports events that delivered nearly $61 million in estimated total economic impact through a combination of 16 sporting events directly hosted by Visit Wichita (totaling $33 million) and support for over 100 additional events citywide (producing $28 million). In the past year alone, Wichita hosted the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Division I Championships (First & Second Rounds), Athletes Unlimited Softball (AUX & AUSL seasons), the NAIA Men’s and Women’s Wrestling National Championships, Professional Fighters League (PFL 6), The Basketball Tournament (TBT) – Wichita Regional, the AJGA Wichita Junior Championship, the NJCAA Men’s & Women’s Soccer National Championships, the NAIA Men’s Soccer National Championships, USA Lacrosse WCLA Championships, US Youth Soccer National Presidents Cup and more.

“This year’s winners reflect the dynamic nature of the sports-event industry, spanning sports as diverse as fencing, basketball, hockey, rowing and soccer and destinations that embody the power of sports-related travel,” said Jason Gewirtz, vice president and managing director for the Sports Division of Northstar Meetings Group, which publishes SportsTravel and organizes the TEAMS Conference & Expo. “But all of our winners broke new ground in sporting events whether at the professional, collegiate or amateur level. The sports-event industry is strong and our roster of winners reflects that extraordinary growth.”

The SportsTravel Awards are nominated and voted on by the readers of SportsTravel, published since 1997 and the first publication dedicated to the industry of sports-related travel. Criteria for nomination and voting for the 2025 SportsTravel Awards program included events that occurred or venues that opened between August 1, 2024, and July 31, 2025.

Hosted by the Greater Columbus Sports Commission, TEAMS ’25 was held October 13–16 in Columbus, Ohio. For more information, visit TEAMSconference.com.