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’?
We are excited to welcome swim fans to the event! If you are looking for more options for fun or restaurant recommendations, visit http://www.onlyinoakbrook.com.
Westmont seems fine, but I wonder why two cities (Carmel In and Wesmont IL) were chosen for the USA World Cup being within 200 miles of each other.
I’m sure California would have geographic beauty and parks, or Seattle would be cool.
Maybe the pool staff and admins were easy to work with?
I thought swimming tourism is what caspar corbeau is doing swimming for netherlands. That aside I think you are being unfair to carmel. If you are attending finals and prelims there isnt much time to see anything anyway. Lani said she found pleasure in going to trader joes and getting some peanut butter cups. That is a good perspective.
I think you’re confusing Caspar with Santo Condorelli, as Caspar has only ever represented the Netherlands, while Santo is Mr Worldwide. Or perhaps with your mom, who I understand has worked highway rest stops near major swim meets for years….
BRUH. Are we making mom jokes great again? First Steve Nolan, now (G)olden Bear?
You have clearly spent way too much time at those rest stops yourself to know that much detail.
We drove 2.5 hours in Saturday night to see finals. Westmont is a similar drive (a little shorter), but we’re busy that weekend (as we have been every other time there’s been swimming in Westmont, it seems). I like having something like this nearby-ish, but we’re only coming in for one night. We’ve also gone to Indy twice to see one night of World Champs trials. The Indy spectator experience is admittedly better. (A pool that doesn’t smell and isn’t hot, at least not from the stands….)
I can vouch that the Morton Arboretum is great, probably especially now with the leaves changing color. Be prepared to do a lot of walking, though you can also drive around a lot… Read more »
Braden, you forgot to put a list of where to get Red Hots and Polish.
Is Centennial Beach open this time in October?
No, as to Centennial Beach. But, quite a few Portillo’s around for Dogs, Polish and Italian Beef.
I feel like I’d need to make a whole new website.
I mean, Portillo’s is the easy answer for sure.
I grew up in Naperville and swimming meets at Centennial Beach was a trip for sure.
What American city (small, medium, or large) has a pool that could host World Cup or similar events that are attractive to non-US swimmers/fans? I would say Indianapolis is fine but I don’t think anyone is traveling there as a tourist destination. Chicago? No. New York? Best pools in the area are probably Long Island and Rutgers. DC? Maybe Maryland or even George Mason? People really seemed to enjoy Hall of Fame but October is too unpredictable weather wise. Austin maybe? Atlanta maybe? Boston? I don’t think Philly has much. Obviously California has a couple but it seems like they do not want it to be outside.
I’m not being critical, just saying that pools like Carmel and Westmont… Read more »
Atlanta has a ton of touristy things and obviously has a great pool. One of the pools in SoCal, for obvious reasons. Federal Way? Seattle is really fun. There are so many better options travel destination wise than the ones they chose.
Dallas area. Tons of pools that could host.
Dallas is not a tourist destination IMO. Might be a nice place to live but I don’t think they get many international tourists. I could be wrong though
Idrk what you could do in Dallas as a “tourist.” They have some great food. A cool museum. Great shopping. You could go to any of their pro sports teams games if they have one. But nothing “touristy.”
Orlando. There are a ton of things to do outside of the meet, plenty of hotel rooms and flight connections, and that pool is home to World Records. Fort Lauderdale also. That pool is gorgeous, and the beach is right there.
You could easily do an Atlanta/Orlando/Fort Lauderdale circuit without more than 2 hours flight time between any of them.
Austin for sure. Atlanta. Orlando. DC. Irvine. Palo Alto (idk if we count this?). Miami surely has somewhere you could build a temporary grandstand. Philly doesn’t have anything even remotely close.
7. Beer
Fun fact: no beer in Illinois.
I do not know how big the bulkheads are and how much extra time the pool would need to be closed (partly or completely) if the racing course was set up to be more in the middle of the pool so more people could see well. This would require additional temporary constructions at both ends (start and probably the turn end).
I’ve always been curios to this. We were just at the Deaconess Center and it would have been much more enjoyable and spectator friendly to have 1 centered competition pool and warmup lanes in the leftover areas.
FMC has seating on 3 sides. Spectators should have great views!