By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
The first stop of the Swimming World Cup in Carmel, Indiana has concluded, and it was full of fast swims in the pool.
The biggest criticism levied upon the stop was that it was held in a high school pool in a suburb without a lot of alternative cultural attractions to draw in fans to watch some of the world’s best swimmers compete (although my mother would lose her mind over the Museum of Miniature Houses).
The crowd was fairly engaged, especially when Americans won – like the Gretchen Walsh World Record and Shaine Casas beating Leon Marchand. That implies a well-educated audience. Carmel High School’s athletics director Jim Inskeep said on Friday that the official ticket sales total was 1,050, though the crowds on both Friday and Saturday appeared well short of that.
But it does sort of bring up a question about the nature of the World Cups: are they a spectator sporting event that should draw people to the towns they’re in? Or are they best fit to take them to smaller swimming towns, like Carmel and the next stop in Westmont, and depend on the locals to fill the stands?
As one commenter put it earlier this week: “Even Westmont, IL is tough. Not going to pop into the Chicago between prelims and finals.”
While commuter rails in Chicago make a trip downtown pretty easy, it’s an hour each way, not leaving a lot of time to explore the city between prelims and finals.
I’ve always thought that the prelims/finals nature of the sport, turning it into an all-day event, is a challenge for its marketability. Even I have to skip a session or two of the U.S. Olympic Trials to stay sane.
But if the meets are going to be held in high school pools, in high school towns, even really nice high school pools in really nice high school towns, it’s worth looking for something to do in between sessions, even if it’s not the Shedd Aquarium. The hope is that this stimulates some semblance of swimming tourism, which makes these towns and federations more likely to pay the hosting fees for these meets in the future.
Here are 5 fun things to do within 25 minutes of the FMC Aquatics Center next weekend in Westmont, Illinois:
1. The Morton Arboretum
Named after the Mortons of salt fame, this is a beautiful outdoor nature preserve with 16 miles of trails, a restaurant overlooking a lake, art installations, a maze, and lots of fun ways to kill an afternoon.
2. Downtown Naperville Riverwalk
One of the cutest downtowns you’ll ever see, downtown Naperville has maintained its charm even as the city has grown to an urbanesque 150,000 population. Walk along the river, see the Millennium Carillon, take pictures on a covered bridge, ride a paddleboat, eat a good meal, or check out Naper Settlement: a living history museum about the founding era of the region. They’re hosting a Halloween-themed party next weekend from 5:30-9:00 – pop in after finals.
3. Cantigny Park
A 500 acre park donated by the grandson of the former Mayor of Chicago Joseph Medill, besides being a beautiful property, there are tanks all over the place that you’re allowed to climb on. If you’re bringing kids to the meet, this is a great place to get some of their energy out. There’s also a golf course there, where you can get a round in between sessions (weather is still forecast to be pretty warm next weekend).
4. Funtopia/Safariland/K1 Speed Addison/Immersive Gamebox
Things that are tough to put in cities include mega-fun centers. K1 Speed is gocarts, Safarliand is an arcade/bowling alley type of place, and Funtopia has a ninja gym. Immersive Gamebox is a collaborative and immersive video game experience. Great ways to kill a rainy afternoon.
5. Tivoli Theatre
This theatre in downtown Downers Grove was opened in 1928 with 1,012 seats, and was the second in the United States to open for sound movies. It’s a beautiful old one screen cinema and has a full bar. It shows mostly-modern movies with the new Bruce Springsteen production being lined up for next weekend. Worth the trip just to see the grandeur of it all. It’s just down the street from my grandma’s favorite restaurant, Omega, which is a classic midwestern diner in every sense of the idea.
6. Oakbrook Center
Honestly one of the best shopping centers in America, Oakbrook Center is located just 10 minutes from the pool. It’s a huge open air mall with lots of high end shopping and fantastic people watching. Antico Posto is the perfect spot for every swimmer’s favorite pre-meet cuisine: Italian food.
It’s a difficult conversation for the sport. Pools are not usually built in dense urban spaces like basketball and hockey arenas are (where the dense urban spaces often pop up around the stadium). It’s more of a European model for soccer stadiums, where they’re further outside of the urban core (which is increasingly true, for example, of NFL stadiums as well).
So what do we do about it? Skip prelims? How should finals be timed to make ‘nightlife’ a realistic option after the session? How big is the market, really, for swimming tourism, and is our answer clouded by ‘what has been’ more than ‘what could be’?
Read the full story on SwimSwam: ‘Swimming Tourism’ and 6 Great Things to do at Next Week’s World Cup in Westmont
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