Phoenix is officially in the race to host the 2028 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Marathon Trials, pitching downtown’s Margaret T. Hance Park as the start-and-finish line for a late March championship weekend. The vision is not just elite runners sprinting for Olympic berths, but a full festival weekend that folds in a mass-participation “people’s race” so locals can share the streets with the pros. With USA Track & Field expected to award the event this spring, the Valley is working on a tight clock to prove it can pull the whole thing off.
Who’s behind the bid
The bid was co-written by Brooksee Race Productions CEO Phil Dumontet and Phoenix Sports & Events Commission executive director Joel Koester, with city leaders publicly backing the push, according to KJZZ. Brooksee and its local partners are eyeing a schedule shuffle that would move the Phoenix Marathon into that March window as a large-scale companion race. They have also floated a looped, spectator-friendly course starting and finishing at Hance Park, organizers told CITIUS Mag.
USATF timeline and event scale
USA Track & Field’s bid handbook locks in the Trials weekend for March 25-26, 2028 and sets a tight selection schedule, with the request for proposals pegging May 2026 for an official award and noting that site visits are already underway. The same document spells out the scale of what Phoenix is chasing: roughly 400 elite athletes, hundreds of team representatives and officials, and more than 100,000 spectators on average at recent Trials, all built around a criterium-style loop course and a robust shuttle system. Those requirements are the playbook Phoenix is trying to match with its downtown concept, according to the USA Track & Field RFP.
Money and crowds
Bid boosters say the payoff could be big. Koester has publicly floated attendance in the hundreds of thousands and suggested a sizable economic return for the region, estimates that were detailed by 12News. City materials and other local reporting have pointed to a more conservative baseline: Phoenix officials told KJZZ that an economic impact in the low-teens of millions is a realistic target, while organizers maintain that a fully built-out festival weekend could nudge that total higher.
Local logistics and what’s at stake
To sell its case, Phoenix is leaning on some home-field advantages. Organizers highlight Greater Phoenix’s large hotel inventory, quick access to the airport, and a compact downtown as key strengths. CITIUS Mag notes the region’s tens of thousands of hotel rooms and an athlete-centric downtown core that could support athlete villages and media operations without spreading the event across a sprawling footprint.
The bid would also put Hance Park, a high-profile redevelopment site in the center of downtown, squarely in the national spotlight. The City of Phoenix lists the park at 67 W Culver St and promotes a continuing revitalization effort that bidders say makes it an even more attractive front porch for the Trials. If Phoenix lands the event, the city and its partners will have to rapidly scale up security, shuttle service, and staging infrastructure to hit USA Track & Field and broadcaster standards, organizers told CITIUS Mag.
USATF’s schedule does not leave much room for a warmup lap. The RFP calls for a host-city decision this spring, which would give the winning bidder roughly two years to pressure-test logistics and lock in operations ahead of the March 2028 weekend, according to the USA Track & Field RFP. For Phoenix, the bid doubles as an early look at Hance Park’s comeback as a major events hub and a calculated wager that a few days of national airtime can translate into long-term tourism and sports business far beyond one very fast weekend.
