Centennial Park attracts elite cycling events to Fayetteville

Centennial Park at Millsap Mountain was built for cyclocross races. The 228-acre venue also accommodates residents and visitors who want to hike, run or ride their bikes on the trails.

The park was completed in 2021 and hosted the 2022 UCI Cyclocross World Championships, only the second time the event has taken place in the United States.

Cyclocross is a unique discipline of cycling that incorporates road cycling, mountain biking and steeplechase. The international sport involves cyclists who use a hybrid of a mountain and road bike to race on a multi-surface course with obstacles, sometimes requiring athletes to carry their bikes or swap them for another.

Researchers at the University of Arkansas estimated the multiday 2022 UCI Cyclocross World Championships event generated nearly $9.9 million in economic activity and brought more than 17,000 visitors to Fayetteville, including 6,000 from Europe and 219 athletes representing 21 nations.

This past December, Centennial Park hosted the 2025 USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships. The championships are scheduled to return here in 2026.

“Centennial Park is such a unique outdoor recreation venue, and why it’s internationally known is because it was specifically built to host national events like cyclocross,” said Ryan Hauck, CEO of Experience Fayetteville, the city’s tourism marketing agency. “Before I moved here … I had told my friends, my family, my coworkers that I was moving to Northwest Arkansas, and the first thing that they mentioned is, ‘Isn’t that where Centennial Park is?’”

He said purpose-built outdoor infrastructure allows Fayetteville to compete for elite-level events that bring visitors from across the country and internationally. This “really becomes … the personality or the brand of your city. When you see your city, your parks and your tourism office invest like we do with infrastructure and our marketing, and we own competitive sports, and specifically, competitive cycling, it really becomes your brand.”

This leads to additional interest from event coordinators and “other big-time events to hold their events here,” he added. “So, it will continue to produce dividends for us in a number of ways.”

One of his goals for the venue is to bring more sporting events here. He also hopes the city and the parks department continue to maintain it and invest in more trails and features, “and continue to make it one of the most premier cycling venues in the entire country.”

The venue also serves as a gateway to the other trails in the city and region, he said. “I think another reason Centennial works so well is because the locals are able to use it on a regular basis.”

BY THE NUMBERS
Experience Fayetteville recently released data on the economic impact of the 2025 USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships, showing a total economic impact of about $2.86 million. The economic impact analysis was conducted using Destinations International’s Event Impact Calculator.

The 2025 championships brought 2,645 total attendees, including 1,587 overnight visitors, from 44 states. Athletes, teams, staff, media and spectators came to Fayetteville during a traditionally slower tourism period. The event supported 565 jobs through direct, indirect, and induced spending and contributed to increased hotel occupancy, restaurant traffic and business activity.

Following are other economic impact metrics from the 2025 championships:
• $1.84 million in direct visitor spending.
• $616,000 in lodging revenue.
• 4,602 hotel room nights.
• More than $82,000 in local tax revenue.

“This was our largest single event investment of the year, and the return speaks for itself,” Hauck said. “Cyclocross Nationals is a high-efficiency visitor event that translates directly into local wage value, business revenue and national exposure for Fayetteville.”

He said athletes competing in higher-level events like these often travel here with their friends, family and teams.

“The sheer number of people that these events attract outside of just the athletes dramatically affects our restaurants, our retail, our hotels, and our attractions to where our local businesses really notice it,” he said. “And typically we try to draw these types of events when tourism is typically slow during our shoulder or even off-season.”

Event surveys and rider feedback show that 85% would return here for future national championships. Participants said the event was “professional,” “legitimate” and “well-run.” Operational strengths included venue flow, parking, volunteer support and course design.

“The rider experience matters just as much as the numbers,” Hauck said. “When athletes leave excited to come back — and to tell others about Fayetteville — that’s when the long-term tourism value really compounds.”

PARKS DEVELOPMENT
At least $10 million was invested to build Centennial Park at 500 S. Centennial Park Lane, northwest of the Interstate 49 interchange with Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (U.S. Highway 62). It was developed as a collaboration between the city of Fayetteville, the Walton Family Foundation and NWA Trailblazers.

The 228-acre property was purchased by the city for $3.3 million in 2018 through a 50-50 matching grant and interest-free loan from the Walton Family Foundation. UCI announced in February 2019 that it would host the Cyclocross World Championships in Fayetteville. Construction of the park started in August 2019 after the city received public feedback on its design.

The city selected Crossland Heavy Contractors to complete park infrastructure, including earthwork, utilities and roads, for $3.14 million. Construction of the main pavilion and restroom facility was completed for $694,000. An additional $3.7 million from the Walton Family Foundation funded event-specific infrastructure and the hosting of major cycling competitions, such as the 2022 UCI Cyclocross World Championships. The city’s initial budget from a 2019 bond issue was about $985,000, with other city capital improvement funds also used for infrastructure.

According to the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, Centennial Park includes a 12-mile trail network that connects to the Fayetteville Traverse. This natural surface trail connects to amenities throughout Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas. The Centennial Park trailhead and parking are accessible from a frontage road along I-49 at the intersection of Mountain Ranch Boulevard and Technology Way.

Hauck said the park almost has an unlimited number of trails because, while it has designated trails, “you can activate that space in so many ways” depending on how the course is developed. The national championships in December included new course designs “that I don’t think has ever been done before. And it almost made it feel like it was a brand new course again for people that have been here before.” After the event, the course barriers are removed, and residents and visitors can use the new trail features.

MULTIPURPOSE VENUE
Outside of cyclocross, the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA), a youth mountain biking organization, often hosts large events at Centennial Park. Regional and state events are also hosted there, Hauck said.

Sterling Hamilton is a member of the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission, the governing body of Experience Fayetteville. He and his family spend time mountain biking at Centennial Park, which he said has some of the most technical trails in the area, compared with other mountain bike trails, such as Kessler Mountain Regional Park. Those at Centennial Park are good for those looking to improve their skills or for a downhill run.

Hamilton said his 11-year-old son is a member of a Fayetteville mountain biking club that practices at Centennial Park and Kessler Mountain and participates in NICA events throughout the state. This past year, NICA hosted a regional championship race at Centennial Park, attracting thousands of people. He attributed the events being hosted here to the venue itself and its national profile from hosting national and international cyclocross championships. He hopes to see more large NICA events at the park and foresees NICA becoming a significant driver for tourism in the coming years.

“Centennial Park is special because it works for tourism and for residents,” Hamilton said. “It’s a community and revenue generator, which is just hard to do. And I think it’s one of the best examples in Northwest Arkansas of that.”