Hoping for an economic boost, mayor’s budget puts money towards major sports events

For the first time, three major sporting events on Maui — The Sentry PGA Tour golf tournament, the Maui Invitational college basketball tournament and the Maui Marathon — are proposed to receive funding in Maui County’s budget in the same fiscal year, according to county officials.

The line-item amounts proposed in the $1.5 billion fiscal year 2026 budget presented by Maui Mayor Richard Bissen on Tuesday are $250,000 to Kemper Sports Marketing for the basketball tournament, and $100,000 each to the PGA Tour for the golf tournament and to the Maui Marathon.

The purpose of the funding is to help promote the events that attract visitors — and their money — to the island. The events have all received monetary grants in the past from the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority and county Office of Economic Development.

The events have provided hundreds of millions in economic impact to Maui over the decades. The recent annual economic impact estimates are $48 million for the golf tournament, $24 million for the basketball tournament and $10 million for the marathon.

Maui Marathon race director Jim Lynch said the $10 million estimate for his event is drawn from a formula used by the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority. He said about 2,000 to 2,200 participants are expected for the 5K, 10K, half marathon and full marathon that is a Boston Marathon qualifier, with about 60% of the participants expected to come from out of state.

Maui County said in a statement it has consistently worked with the organizers of the three sporting events, which “make substantial contributions to our local economy. These events involve complex logistics that require coordination across multiple county departments.”

Bissen also said the events have become deep-rooted on Maui over the years. The Maui Invitational started as a four-team event at War Memorial Gym in 1984. The Sentry began at the Kapalua Plantation Course in 1999 and the Maui Marathon will run for the 55th time on April 27.

“While the sporting events these partners bring are impressive, it’s their long-term commitment to Maui that sets them apart,” Bissen said in an email. “They invest in our community, build lasting relationships, and generate real economic benefits — from job creation to local business support.

“Just as importantly, they inspire our youth by connecting them to world-class athletes and opportunities.”

Maui County’s primary economic engine of tourism has yet to fully recover from the back-to-back blows of the COVID pandemic, which began in March 2020, and the 2023 Lahaina and Upcountry wildfires.

The number of visitor arrivals to Maui fell drastically after the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfire, when the aftermath of the fires curbed tourism significantly. While the market is slowly returning, the arrivals are still less than the peak year of 2019, before the pandemic.

According to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, there were 2,345,288 visitors to Maui in 2024, while the total in 2023 was 2,495,038. There were 3,059,905 visitors in 2019 prior to the pandemic.

A state report released in March found that Maui County’s economic recovery trailed the rest of the islands, especially in the areas of tourism and unemployment.

In the past, the three major sporting events were apply to compete for and receive grants from the county Office of Economic Development.

“However, as part of a broader strategy emphasizing economic revitalization and resiliency, we made a deliberate decision to transition these opportunities into line-item allocations in the proposed FY 2026 budget,” the county said. “This approach ensures more structured and strategic funding, aligning with our long-term economic priorities.”

The organizations behind the sporting events still need to apply for grant funding with the Office of Economic Development as if they were applying for a competitive grant as in the past. This includes providing a budget detailing how the funding will be used, the county explained.

Each application goes through a review process before an agreement can be executed, and if the grantee requests to change how its funding is used, it must be approved and an amendment to the grant agreement needs to be executed.

Maui County Council Budget, Finance and Economic Development Committee chairwoman Yuki Lei Sugimura said Thursday evening that she is in favor of the line-item appropriation plan for the three sporting events.

“The most important thing is that they get funded,” Sugimura said. “For awhile, because of COVID, we didn’t have the Maui Invitational, but I’m glad it came back. It brings in a lot of revenue and a lot of energy. We love it.”

She added that the advertising on ESPN networks is “priceless.”

And, Sugimura said, for many years The Sentry tournament has supported schools, the Lahainaluna High School Foundation, Lahaina Junior Golf, Ka Lima O Maui, Hale Makua and the Walter J. Cameron Center.

“They all volunteer at the tournament, so it’s not just giving away free money,” Sugimura said.

The marathon and the golf tournament both give funds to volunteer organizations that help with the logistics to put on the events. Lynch said that some of the organizations that will help with the marathon next month include the Lahainaluna High School track and field teams, Na Leo Kākoʻo Maui, Scouting America Aloha Council and the Baldwin High School girls basketball team.

The Lahainaluna High School Foundation is one of the large recipients of funds from providing volunteers for The Sentry.

Foundation president Mark Tillman said prior to the tournament that more than 60 students — in the band and on the robotics, wrestling, football and softball teams — volunteered at the event this year in exchange for donated funds to help run their programs. Their responsibilities include distributing drinking water around the course and trash pickup.

“It’s just such a blessing because it has now become our sole source of income for donations and we are just having fun with it,” Tillman said in late December. “They’ve been very generous to us over the years.”

The Sentry also uses local businesses for transportation, accommodations, security, excursions, cultural activities and tournament operations like fuel, waste management and equipment rentals. The marathon also uses local businesses and employees, including GP Roadway Solutions Maui for the coning to separate the runners from the roadways on the course, and pays overtime for Maui Police Department officers to help runners navigate road intersections and direct traffic.

County Council Member Nohelani U‘u-Hodgins said the sports tourism dollars need to be appropriated after other essential items are met in the budget, including affordable housing and a $400,000 line item to keep Pāʻia clean and safe. U‘u-Hodgins holds the Makawao-Haʻikū-Pāʻia residency area seat.

“I would be happy to put it into sports tourism so long as all of our needs to feel clean and safe and housed for the entire community are met,” U‘u-Hodgins said.

Max Novena, executive director of The Sentry, said in an email to Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative that the county support “extends beyond funding to providing key services which help make the event a success.”

“The global reach of The Sentry brings economic impact and international attention to the Valley Isle, but most importantly allows us to give back to the community in meaningful ways,” Novena said.

Sentry Insurance, the Wisconsin-based title sponsor of the PGA Tour’s season opener that was held Jan. 2-5 this year at the Kapalua Plantation Course, has donated more than $3 million to Maui wildfire relief. The company is under contract to sponsor the tournament through 2035 and through its foundation and money raised at the tournament, it has donated more than $7.5 million to Maui since taking over as title sponsor in 2018.

Novena said that goes back into “local businesses, essential services and a range of community programs spanning from workforce development, mental health and elderly care to youth sports and conservation efforts.”

The Sentry is part of the “Aloha Swing” portion of the PGA Tour schedule that also includes the Sony Open at Waialae Country Club on O‘ahu and the Mitsubishi Electric Championship on Hawai‘i Island. The Aloha Swing has received funding from the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority since 2001 and last year the HTA grant was nearly $2 million to the PGA Tour for the Aloha Swing.

The Maui Invitational is now an eight-team tournament annually held at the Lahaina Civic Center on the three days before Thanksgiving. KemperSports Live told the Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative in November that an estimated 6,000 visitors came to the island for the event.

“For the last 43 years, we have been grateful to partner with Maui and Hawaiʻi to bring the best in college basketball to the beautiful island of Maui,” B.R. Koehnemann, a KemperSports Live spokesperson, said in an email. “We look forward to many more years of this partnership.”

But Koehnemann said the company could not comment on Bissen’s proposed funding for the tournament.

Three of the previous four basketball tournaments were held off of Maui. In 2020, it was held in Asheville, N.C., and in 2021 it was in Las Vegas due to the COVID pandemic. The wildfires of 2023 led to it being held on Oʻahu.

According to the County of Maui, the Maui Invitational (Kemper Sports Marketing) received $210,000 in Office of Economic Development grant funding in the last fiscal year. The agreement for fiscal year 2024 was disencumbered because the organization could not use the funds due to the wildfire.

Valley Isle Road Runners received $50,000 in Office of Economic Development grant funding for the Maui Marathon in each of fiscal years 2025 and 2024.

The Sentry PGA Tour event did not receive grant funding in either of the past two fiscal years, but did receive a Office of Economic Development grant of $100,000 in fiscal year 2023.

Lynch and Valley Isle Road Runners president Jeremiah Savage both said the county funding is a lifeline for the marathon. Japan Travel Bureau was a major sponsor for the Maui Marathon until declining interest from Japanese runners led to the cutting of ties with the organization in 2017. That’s when the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority started helping the event, along with grants from the Maui County Office of Economic Development.

For the first time, the Maui Marathon will start and finish in Kā‘anapali, with an out-and-back course when it runs next month. Organizers believe that will concentrate visitors in the West Maui area where economic recovery is most needed.

“This is opening up the channels for people to come back to Maui and experience the Island and help the (West Maui) people that need jobs,” Lynch said. “It’s really helping the economy over there.”

Savage added, “This is a way for the residents and visitors to do a healthy, positive thing and work with each other. And do a race together and celebrate human accomplishment.”