Your Resource for Planning Meetings, Conventions and Tradeshows in Wisconsin.

If “sports” don’t come to mind immediately when you think “Wisconsin,” they should.  Wisconsin has hosted everything from Major League Baseball to international softball, from world-class bowling to high-profile professional golfing, and just about everything in between.  Read on to learn about Wisconsin’s role in virtually every sport you can imagine.

Golf

• A number of the state’s courses have hosted professional tournaments in the last two years including: Brown Deer (US Bank Championship), Whistling Straits (PGA Championship & 2007 Senior Open), Fox Hills (NGA Hooters Tour), Geneva National (Duramed Futures Tour) and Troy Burne (Nationwide Tour).

• Wisconsin ranks in the top 10 nationally for number of public golf courses.

• The 2004 PGA Championships at Whistling Straits in Kohler set both attendance and economic impact records for the tournament.

Outdoors

• Each year, more than 1.3 million fishing licenses are sold and more than 61 million fish are caught, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

• Wisconsin has 171 species of fish and continually ranks among the top 10 states for overall fishing activity.

• The National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame is located in Hayward, Wis.
• The state ranks second in the nation in out-of-state fish licenses behind only Florida.

• Nearly 40 percent of the state is made up of forestland.

• Wisconsin has more than 15,000 inland lakes and 25,000 miles of rivers and streams.

• Wisconsin is home to more than 22,000 miles of snowmobile trails.

• The state has transformed more than 1,000 miles of railroad beds into biking trails, including the nation’s first rail-to-trail conversion: the 33-mile Elroy Sparta Trail.

• More than 1,700 participants annually take part in the Chequamegon Fat Tire 40-mile, off-road, bicycle marathon from downtown Hayward over the famed American Birkebeiner Ski Trail (forest roads, snowmobile trails and other wooded lanes) to the finish line in Cable.

Racing

• With 43 statewide auto racetracks, including the historic Milwaukee Mile in West Allis and Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin is one of the top racing destinations in the country.

• The Milwaukee Mile is the oldest continuously operating major racetrack in the United States, having hosted numerous IRL, Champ Car and NASCAR races.

Winter Sports

• Ranked fourth in the nation for its number of ski areas, the state offers at least 30 downhill sites for skiing enthusiasts.

• West Allis is home to the Pettit Center, one of only two Olympic-sized skating ovals in the country.  The center was the Olympic training center through the 2000 Olympics and still hosts regional, national and international skating competitions.

• Prior to the opening of the Pettit Ice Center, the outdoor Wisconsin Olympic Ice Rink (located on the very same grounds) served as the official training ground for several highly decorated speed skaters – including Eric Heiden, Beth Heiden, Peter Mueller and Leah Poulos -- who went on to win world championships and Olympic medals.

• Wisconsin is home to two major hockey facilities:  The Kohl Center in Madison (home of the UW Badgers) and The Bradley Center in Milwaukee (home to the Milwaukee Admirals).

• The Women’s UW Badgers were NCAA Division I Champions in 2007 & 2006; the Men’s UW Badgers were NCAA Division I Champions in 2006.

• Milwaukee’s Bradley Center has hosted the Frozen Four several times.

• More than 30,000 spectators gather to witness the 1,400-plus entrants competing in the world’s premier snowmobile racing event, the World Championship Snowmobile Derby, held in Eagle River.

• More than 15,000 spectators and 5 million viewers throughout the United States will see the largest cross-country ski race in North America:  The American Birkebeiner from Cable to Hayward.  More than 7,000 skiers participate.

Professional Sports

• Green Bay Packers season tickets are sold-out for the next 30 years.

• Attendance at Miller Park has surpassed 2 million in each of the Milwaukee Brewers’ seven seasons at Miller Park with more than 15 million fans attending Brewer home games during the stadium’s seven-year history. 

• The Milwaukee Bucks play in the Bradley Center, an 18,000-seat facility that has also hosted NCAA Division I basketball regionals (aka March Madness).

• Greenfield, Wis. is home to the World Bowling Congress Headquarters.

Amateur Sports

• The Walter Schroeder Aquatic Center in Brown Deer was home to the 1981 U.S. National Swimming Championships where Olympic gold medalist Mary T. Meagher set world records that stood for nearly two decades.

• Kimberly, Wis. is the only 10-time host of the International Softball Conference (ISC) World Tournament.

• Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton has hosted four of the top five highest attended NCAA III Baseball Championships.