Fayetteville prepared for splash with cyclocross event at Centennial Park

FAYETTEVILLE -- Fans and possible future fans will get their first taste of a professional cyclocross event this week, perhaps with a little mud and beer mixed in.

Centennial Park will host a Union Cycliste Internationale world cup cyclocross event on Wednesday. UCI, known as International Cycling Union in the United States, is holding 16 events during its world cup schedule.

Fayetteville is the second event on the list. Events in the United States also will be held in Waterloo, Wis., and Iowa City, Iowa. Other events will be held around the world in countries such as Belgium, the Czech Republic, France and the Netherlands.

Wednesday's event will serve as a precursor to the union's world championships to be held Jan 28-30 in Fayetteville. That event will mark the second time Union Cycliste Internationale has held a championship in the United States, the first being the 2013 championship in Louisville, Ky.

Cyclocross is akin to mountain biking, involving short courses with obstacles, hills, steps and rough terrain prompting riders to get off their bikes to run for certain sections. The sport often gets dirty, with riders covered in mud, soil and dust by the end of a race.

Expected turnout for Wednesday's event is 2,500 people, said Molly Rawn, chief executive officer of the city's tourism bureau, Experience Fayetteville. Expected turnout for the world championships is 15,000, she said.

Organizers are treating Wednesday's event as a test run for when Fayetteville hosts the world championship, Rawn said. The city has seen about $500,000 in lodging revenue associated with the two events thus far, and the bureau plans to analyze the economic impact after Wednesday's event, she said.

The city has a 2% hotel, motel and restaurant sales tax. Half the revenue goes to tourism, and the other half goes to parks.

Wednesday's event could have a total economic impact for the city of more than $1.3 million, according to a 2019 projection from the Runway Group, a Walton family company involved with programming at the park. The world championships are projected to bring $2.3 million in revenue to the city, according to the group.

Wednesday's event will mark the park's first professional cyclocross race, although the city has held local and regional biking events at the park over the past few years, Rawn said. A professional mountain biking event also was held at the park in April.

Planning for the two cyclocross events has been years in the making. International group announced in 2018 they would be racing here. The city acquired the 228 acres for Centennial Park in February 2018 for more than $3.3 million with a matching grant from the Walton Family Foundation. The agreement involved the city paying back its half of the purchase price in yearly installments of more than $275,000 over five years.

The city also agreed to pay for maintenance and features such as a parking lot, pavilion, roads and restrooms. NWA Trail Blazers, a Bentonville nonprofit organization that helps build trails for bicycling, running and walking in the region, developed the soft-surface trails for the mountain bike and cyclocross courses.

The city has spent about $5.2 million on the park between the land acquisition and building its features. The Walton Family Foundation has spent nearly $5.5 million between the land acquisition and the soft-surface trails for the courses.

Rawn said she is confident the city's investment will pay off.

"That course stays for residents and tourists alike from all over to come and ride," she said. "This park is for everyone, and events are one facet of that, but this park also is a gift to the city and its residents. Absolutely it will pay dividends, and we'll see a return on that investment, without question."

The city unveiled a conceptual master plan for Centennial Park in April 2019. The plan will be built out over a few years, and includes 16 miles of trails, playgrounds, canopy walks, picnic areas, a pavilion, hammock area, stage, campsite, restrooms and storage.

The 16 miles of trails for mountain biking and cyclocross racing are finished, said Erin Rushing, executive director of NWA Trail Blazers. Riders and spectators should expect a variety of challenges on the courses, including steps, tunnels, slopes, mud and rocks, he said.

Spectatorship plays a key role in the appeal of cyclocross, Rushing said. Attendees will be able to drink beer and eat food and stand alongside the course routes for a closeup of the action.

"There's nothing like it anywhere else in the region. For a bike-specific event-space, it is world-class," Rushing said. "It's an amazing piece of property to start with, but to put that event space on top of it, it is great. It has monumental features and is purpose-built for a race event. It's going to blow people's minds."

The entire park is more than half built, said Ted Jack, the city's park planning superintendent. The trails for the courses are finished, but the pavilion with restrooms won't be complete until the world championships in January, he said. An 83-space parking lot is done but will be occupied by vendors and event organizers for Wednesday's world cup. Spectators will have to park at Baum-Walker Stadium and take a shuttle to the park.

The idea from the beginning was to have spectators shuttle in for large events, Jack said. The master plan includes 420 parking spots on unpaved spaces in addition to the parking lot. Portable toilets will be set up for the cyclocross events, he said.

The Parks Department will revisit the master plan after the UCI events to figure out what features are most appropriate for the park, Jack said. Basketball and pickleball courts may go in, for example.

"The things that are left are more like elements you could build -- like if you did do a playground or put a zip line in the trees," he said. "There are a lot of different things you could do."