Overland Park lands five-year APP Tour stop starting in 2026

Overland Park just locked in more than a tournament. The five-year deal with the Association of Pickleball Players will make the city a recurring stop on the APP Tour starting in 2026, giving the Kansas City metro a stable date on the national pickleball calendar instead of a one-off burst of activity.

The first APP Overland Park Open will run September 16-20, 2026, at AdventHealth Sports Park at Bluhawk. The package goes beyond the main Open: Overland Park will also host APP Next and a collegiate qualifier event, a setup that should widen the funnel from elite pros to younger players and serious amateurs looking for real exposure.

That matters because the APP Tour is not being built like a sideshow. It will be one of 12 stops on the national tour in 2026, and USA Pickleball describes APP as the first USA Pickleball-sanctioned tour for professionals and amateurs, launched in June 2021. In practical terms, Overland Park is not just getting a branded event; it is getting plugged into a season-long competitive circuit with singles, doubles and mixed play, plus clinics and community programming around it.

The scale is what makes this worth watching. Organizers expect about 200 professional athletes and roughly 1,000 amateur players to come through during the five-day window. That is the kind of field that can turn a local event into a regional destination, especially in a sport where court time and tournament access still matter as much as rankings. For amateur players, the upside is obvious: more brackets, more reps and a chance to be around the same venue as the pros.

Overland Park has been building toward this moment for years. Visit Overland Park says the city has 48 open-play courts, meaning no membership is needed, plus close to 30 courts suited for large-event competitive and professional play. Earlier local reporting counted more than 75 courts at more than 12 facilities, while a 2023 search-volume study from Offers.bet ranked Overland Park as the nation’s most pickleball-obsessed city. The numbers point to the same conclusion: this is not a random stop, but a market with enough demand to support it.

Eric Olson framed the selection as another sign of Overland Park’s pull as a place to visit and compete, while APP chief revenue officer Ryan McSpadden said the tour is excited to bring three world-class pickleball events to the city. If the five-year bet holds, Overland Park will not just host pickleball. It will help define the Midwest’s next durable destination for it.