The largest race

Grand Nationals success bodes well for BMX Tulsa relocation

Over Thanksgiving weekend, Tulsa hosted the 2016 USA BMX Grand Nationals, presented by the Tulsa Sports Commission, and once again, the event was the biggest one yet.

It was the 19th straight year that USA BMX has held its most important, most far-reaching showcase of the season here in Tulsa, and the magnitude of the event and the response of the local fans demonstrated why the organization is moving its national headquarters to Tulsa.

Almost 3,000 riders representing 46 states and 21 foreign nations raced in the various amateur age brackets, ranging from five years old to over 50, both male and female, as well as all the top professionals, making it the largest BMX race event ever held.

Beginning with practices starting Thanksgiving morning, the competition culminated on Sunday, Nov. 27 at the River Spirit Center at Expo Square with the crowning of Grand Nationals champions Joris Daudet of France (his second straight title) and Alise Post (the women’s Olympic silver medalist who won her third straight championship, and record ninth overall).

Also among the high-profile riders was Connor Fields, who was making his first appearance on a BMX track since winning the men’s Olympic gold medal in Rio in August. He finished eighth.

“In the world of BMX racing, it’s truly the largest race that happens in the world and unequivocally has the best talent pool,” said USA BMX Chief Operating Officer John David. “Most of the riders you saw in Rio in the Olympics were all here in Tulsa racing for the Pro Championship Finals. Saturday night alone, we had a $20,000 purse for the elite men class, and another $10,000 purse for the elite women class, so unbelievable prize money being awarded and some great racing. It’s a great event.”

Overall, the weekend pumped at least $12 million into the Tulsa economy, with a large chunk of that coming from over 15,000 hotel room nights spent by the out-of-town visitors participating in the event.

“We’re still looking at the numbers from this year, but when you look at the $12 million from last year, even if they did that at minimum for this year, that’s still a huge impact of what this one event brings to our community,” said Vince Trinidad, executive director of the Tulsa Sports Commission. “These are new dollars coming into our community. The more new money that comes in, the less we as tax-payers have to pay.”

The way the Tulsa BMX community has embraced the annual event in increasing numbers, both to watch and participate in the sport at all age levels, further underscores why it’s such a good fit for USA BMX to permanently relocate here from Gilbert, Arizona.

“We’ve been here for a long time, and honestly, that long tenure is really what’s allowed us to familiarize ourselves with the town, and honestly, fall in love with it,” David said. “We couldn’t be more pleased with all the major parties that are involved, first and foremost, the Tulsa Sports Commission, and the monumental efforts they do to support us and getting the event put together here.” 

The process of USA BMX moving its headquarters here, which was initiated by the passing of the Vision Tulsa package back in April by Tulsa voters, is slowly moving along.

The old Drillers Stadium at the corner of 15th St. and Yale Ave., where USA BMX will build its new offices as well as a new state-of-the-art track and training facility, is now empty and sitting there waiting to be demolished, and probably will be for several more months as the money gets allocated and contractors are hired. 

“Ideally, we would love to have the facilities up and built sometime in 2019, probably no later than the middle of the year,” Trinidad said. “We want to have a test event before the 2020 Olympic year. … It’s up to the city and county to work on their agreement, but once the funds are allocated towards the project, we should be able to get started.”

“Everything with that is progressing right on track with what our target has been all along, and that’s really the next Olympic cycle in 2020 and making sure the move is successfully completed before that process,” added David. 

Fields, the United States’ first Olympic gold medalist, believes that the impending relocation will have a positive impact on both the sport and the city.

“It’s really cool, I think it’s a really good fit,” said Fields, who has been participating in the Grand Nationals here since 2002, when he was 10, missing just the 2004 event. “I think the foundation’s been laid over the last 19 years of having this event here. I think this city’s going to embrace the sport and the opportunity that they’re going to be the headquarters of an entire sport. I’m looking forward to seeing what Tulsa is able to come up with. I hope that it’s a great place to come ride and train.”

For more from John, read his article on the Route 66 Marathon.