If he’s not Performing 200 Miles around the racetrack, NASCAR winner driver Kurt Busch is ingesting a desire besides speed: his love of sport. “After the NASCAR schedule comes out, I strategically make plans to get to a unique sporting event at least once a month,” states the enthusiastic fan, creating a point of seeing baseball parks and other sports arenas such as museums and stadiums across the racing circuit.
And he is hardly alone. Sports-related tourism is big bucks in America. Super Bowl XLVIII was widely acclaimed (if contested) as with a $600 million economic impact in the new york region. Chump change beside the billions enclosing the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
However, avowed sports nuts do not need big-ticket occasions to attract Out their fire. Under-the-radar actions and the opportunity to demonstrate their love of this game–any sport–while on holiday could transform a trip to an unforgettable adventure.
How about running the foundations on the Authentic Field of Dreams in Iowa? Standing in the Baltimore room where Babe Ruth was born? Skating the “Miracle on Ice” rink from America’s very own Olympics at Lake Placid, NY? Or, as Busch indicates in his home state of North Carolina, seeing Charlotte’s NASCAR team race stores?
“As a car guy, it’s such a treat,” he says, “but you don’t even have to be a sports fan to appreciate the quality of work that goes into all of these cars.” And if you visit Indianapolis or even Orlando, FL, you may even drive one!
From shooting hoops in Springfield, MA, to browsing San Diego’s waves, we have sweated the details to spot itineraries for sport lovers in general, but particularly basketball lovers. Here are our top three spots…. Game on!
Indianapolis: The Brickyard and Basketball
Getting behind the wheel of an IndyCar to get a high-speed ride around among the world’s most renowned tracks will make anybody–from regular petrol heads to racing aficionados–need to “Kiss the Bricks” such as Brickyard race champions have done since 1996. Basketball (and sports film) lovers can relive the “Milan Miracle of 1954” at either the Milan ’54 Hoosiers Museum which also offers the iconic basketball shirts along with the Hinkle Fieldhouse, in which the historical high school game has been played (and at which all of this film Hoosiers, where it is established, was filmed).
North Carolina: Laps and Layups
It is March Madness constantly in Chapel Hill and Neighboring Durham, NC, at which college basketball enthusiasts dressed fully in warring basketball jersey designs and kits can catch tickets to observe Tar Heels (five-time NCAA National Champions) and Duke Blue Devils matches (in the infamously extreme Cameron Stadium). A road trip to neighboring Charlotte is a cure for racing lovers, also. The NASCAR Hall of Fame joins displays on racing’s greats with entertaining, interactive activities, although the Richard Petty Museum introduces the racing legend’s accomplishments along with his sudden collections of firearms, dolls, and pocket watches. Many NASCAR team headquarters are available to the public too and feature displays on hot drivers.
New England Hall of Fame Road Trip
A road trip through New England creates a worthy holiday for Hoops, hardball, and racquet sports lovers. Nearly 300 iconic gamers come living In the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA, at which James Naismith created the game in 1891. Only 90 minutes away in Boston sits MLB’s earliest (and among America’s greatest) baseball stadiums: Fenway Park. Tours Contain sitting on the infamous Green Dragon, the bothersome, drama-making 37-foot, 2-inch-high left field wall. In neighboring Newport, RI, the Global Tennis Hall of Fame’s tasteful grounds hold 13 bud courts which were host to the 1881 Championship that evolved into the U.S. Open.
