High stakes: Weston hosts World Horseshoe Tournament this month

This event, I will go on record and say, might be the best event we have seen or will see in a while just because there’s so much support in this community.”

Dalton Rakestraw, NHPA vice president

The horseshoes will be going “Cling! Clang!” instead of “Clip! Clop!” in Weston this coming week as the Greenheck Turner Community Center hosts the 2026 National Horseshoe Pitchers Association (NHPA) World Tournament. The world championship event is currently transforming the 135,000-square-foot indoor turf facility to house nearly 900 international competitors as the two-week tournament starts Monday, July 13.

For locals, the tournament presents an exciting, unique entertainment option. The tournament, which is free to attend, runs July 13-26. Dalton Rakestraw, NHPA vice president and world tournament coordinator, said the highest level of play, with the biggest names, will occur in the final six or so days of the tournament.

“That’s when you’re gonna see some of the more high-caliber players,” Rakestraw said. “Some of those people are gonna be those who make ringers 60% of the time or more.”

Hosting an international sports tournament is a massive undertaking for the GTCC staff, but they’ve been up to the challenge so far. Last week, 50,000 square feet of indoor turf in the fieldhouse was covered with flooring panels, making way for pitching mounds and horseshoe pits to be installed this week.

“This is the most square footage of flooring we’ve ever set up. This is 50,000 square feet of flooring. I think the most we’ve ever set up is 15,000 — so quite a big difference,” said Aaron Mull, director of community services and special projects at GTCC. “The flooring that we’re putting down right now is a specialized flooring that is for the turf, so it doesn’t harm the turf. It’s the same stuff they use like when the [Minnesota] Vikings have a concert. We do everything we can to make sure that we are protecting the investment, which is the building.”

Even the clay for the pits has special history. It was previously used at the 2025 world tournament in Salt Lake City, and plenty of events before that.

“They reuse the clay every year,” Mull said. “It was shipped here last summer. It’s been sitting here for a year. The clay is from a special pit that they say is the best clay for horseshoes and so they reuse it every year.”

But it’s not just about the facilities. NHPA leadership has been impressed by the level of support and coordination brought forth by the communities in the Greater Wausau area.

“We really look for that community effect and we have so much community support from Tim White at Visit Wausau to the Village of Weston, all the people at Greenheck Turner Community Center, all of these people working collectively and communicatively together to make this event unfold,” Rakestraw said. “This event, I will go on record and say, might be the best event we have seen or will see in a while just because there’s so much support in this community.”

And the numbers don’t lie. This year’s tournament is shaping up to be NHPA’s biggest championship event in some time, with 888 registered competitors as of July 6. By contrast, the 2025 tournament in Salt Lake City, Utah, drew about 650 competitors, and the 2024 tournament in Kennewick, Washington, only had 550 pitchers.

“This year, because we have so many more registered pitchers, we’re anticipating a 95% to 115% overall spending lift in our area for those two weeks,” said Tim White, executive director of Visit Wausau.

All in, the tournament could have a $4 million economic impact on the surrounding communities, Mull said. Those numbers won’t be determined, however, until after the dust settles and the data pours in, White said.

“About two to four weeks after the event we’ll get the more realistic numbers of exactly, how much the region was lifted by this and be able to put a total economic value on it,” White said. “If we looked at the past couple of years of those events, I think last year’s is maybe almost $2 million, but, looking at our numbers, our registered numbers, I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t have an economic footprint of $2 million to $4 million for our Greater Wausau, Marathon County area.”

But the benefits don’t stop with this year’s tournament. The host organizations also secured their bid for the 2029 NHPA tournament, so horseshoes will be back at Greenheck in just a few years’ time.

For the full event schedule and details, visit gtcc.dce.k12.wi.us and click the “Horseshoes” tab.