TL;DR:

Girls' high school volleyball participation hit an all-time high of 470,488 in 2022-23. Club volleyball registrations rose 33 percent in a single year. The average club volleyball family spends $3,159 per season before travel costs, making it the most expensive youth travel sport in the country. Volleyball tournaments in mid-sized cities routinely generate $3 million to $4 million in economic impact over a single weekend. Twin Falls has active volleyball families, competitive high school programs, and a proposed recreation center that explicitly includes volleyball courts. What it does not have is a facility capable of hosting a tournament. Every dollar those families spend at tournaments in other cities stays in other cities.

Somewhere this weekend, a gym full of teenage girls in knee pads and jerseys is warming up for a club volleyball tournament. Their parents drove two or three hours to get there. They booked hotel rooms last night. They will eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at local restaurants today and tomorrow. Between matches, they will buy coffee, fill gas tanks, and browse whatever shops the host city has near the venue.

By Sunday evening, they will drive home. The host city will keep the money.

This scene plays out every weekend from January through May across the country. Volleyball has quietly become the largest participation sport for girls in American high schools and one of the most powerful drivers of youth sports tourism nationally. For cities with the facilities to host, it is a reliable, recurring economic engine. For cities without, it is spending that leaves town every weekend and never comes back.

Twin Falls is in the second category. The same one it occupies for basketball and every other indoor tournament sport.

The sport that won't stop growing

Volleyball's growth over the past decade has been extraordinary, and the data is not ambiguous.

The number of girls playing high school volleyball in the United States reached an all-time high of 470,488 in 2022-23, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. That figure is second only to outdoor track and field among all girls' high school sports. More girls now play high school volleyball than basketball in all but nine states.

At the club level, USA Volleyball reported 333,208 junior girls ages 11 to 18 registered with clubs as of July 2023, a 40 percent increase since the 2013-14 season. i9 Sports recorded a 33 percent increase in volleyball registrations in 2024 compared to 2023 alone, with nearly 13,000 additional children participating in a single year.

The growth is not limited to girls. Boys' participation in high school volleyball has increased by 56 percent over the past decade, with more than half of U.S. states now offering official boys' high school volleyball programs.

At the college and professional level, the visibility explosion has been even more dramatic. Regular season college volleyball viewership on ESPN platforms rose 58 percent between 2022 and 2024. Regional finals viewership increased 98 percent year over year. In 2023, Nebraska volleyball set a world attendance record for a women's sporting event when 92,003 fans filled Memorial Stadium. Three professional women's volleyball leagues now operate in the United States, up from zero in 2020.

This is not a sport on the margins. It is a sport in the middle of a cultural moment, and every metric, participation, viewership, professional investment, and tournament volume, is pointing in the same direction.

What volleyball tournaments generate for host cities

The economic impact of volleyball tournaments follows the same pattern as basketball tournaments but with some distinctive characteristics. Volleyball tournament weekends tend to draw more teams per event (the sport's roster size and bracket structures allow for larger fields), and club volleyball families are documented as among the highest-spending youth sports travelers.

At the national scale, the numbers are staggering. The 51st AAU Junior National Volleyball Championships in Orlando generated $760.8 million in economic impact, filled 95,000 hotel room nights, and attracted more than 117,000 athletes and coaches over 24 days. It was named to the Sports Destination Management Hall of Fame for economic impact, the only event to receive that distinction in 2024.

But a city does not need to host the AAU nationals to see meaningful impact. Mid-sized volleyball tournaments, the kind a Twin Falls facility could realistically host, generate documented returns that would be significant for the Magic Valley.

The Peak Challenge and Rocky Top Bash volleyball tournaments at Rocky Top Sports World in Gatlinburg, Tennessee generated more than $3.5 million combined in economic impact and were recognized as 2025 Champions of Economic Impact by Sports Destination Management. The Nike First in Show Volleyball Tournament in Ocala, Florida generated $3.6 million in economic impact and accounted for 1,902 hotel room nights in a single weekend.

Gatlinburg and Ocala are not major metro areas. They are mid-sized communities that built or adapted facilities capable of hosting multi-court volleyball events. The spending pattern, hotel rooms, restaurants, gas stations, retail, is the same one that drives basketball tournament economics. Volleyball simply delivers it with larger team counts and a participant base that, on average, spends more per family.

The most expensive youth travel sport

The cost dimension of club volleyball is worth understanding because it directly affects Twin Falls families.

According to a Towson University analysis of youth travel sports spending, the average annual cost of a spot on a travel volleyball team is $3,159, the highest of any youth travel sport surveyed. For comparison, travel basketball averages $1,378 and travel baseball averages $1,197. Rugby, the least expensive, averages $281.

That $3,159 covers club fees, coaching, tournament entry, and insurance. It does not include the family costs that come on top: hotel rooms for tournament weekends, meals on the road, gas or airfare, spectator admission fees, and the time investment of driving to events in Boise, Salt Lake City, or beyond.

The average club volleyball season runs $3,000 to $5,000 per player when all fees are included, and elite programs can exceed that significantly. For families with more than one volleyball player, the annual investment can reach $8,000 to $10,000 before travel.

These are costs that Twin Falls volleyball families are already paying. The question is where the tournament-weekend spending goes. When a Twin Falls club team travels to a tournament in Boise, Salt Lake City, or Pocatello, the hotel rooms, the restaurant meals, the gas, and the retail spending flow to those host cities. A facility in Twin Falls that could host even a portion of those events would redirect some of that spending locally, and it would bring visiting teams' spending into the Magic Valley from the other direction.

Idaho's volleyball scene is already competitive

Idaho is not waiting for volleyball to arrive. The sport is already here, and it is active.

Twin Falls High School and Canyon Ridge High School both compete in IHSAA volleyball. Across the state, Idaho club programs like Idaho Crush (nationally ranked, based in the Boise area), Club Idaho (38 years operating), Idaho Show Sports, and Idaho Level Up Volleyball in Southeast Idaho all field competitive travel teams that participate in AAU and USAV-sanctioned tournaments.

These clubs and their families travel. They travel to Boise for regional events. They travel to Salt Lake City for national qualifiers. They travel to Portland, Las Vegas, and Denver for showcase tournaments. Every trip represents a weekend of spending in another city's economy.

The proposed Twin Falls recreation center explicitly includes volleyball courts alongside its four regulation basketball courts, with tournament hosting capacity listed as a facility feature. The same multi-court configuration that hosts basketball on one weekend converts to volleyball the next. This is standard design for modern recreation centers, and it is exactly the kind of flexibility that makes a facility financially sustainable through diverse event programming.

What volleyball adds that basketball alone does not

Blog 11 in this series made the case for basketball tournament hosting. Volleyball adds something distinct to that equation, and the differences matter for how Twin Falls thinks about facility design and programming.

Larger team counts per event. Volleyball tournaments routinely draw more teams than basketball events because roster sizes are smaller (6 starters vs. 5) and bracket formats allow for larger fields. A 64-team volleyball tournament is common at the regional level. That means more families traveling, more hotel rooms booked, and more spending per event.

Higher family spending per season. At $3,159 per player for club fees alone, volleyball families are already the highest-spending demographic in youth travel sports. When those families travel to a tournament in Twin Falls instead of traveling away from it, the spending differential is significant.

A different demographic. Volleyball participation is overwhelmingly female at the youth and high school level. A facility that hosts both basketball and volleyball tournaments serves a broader cross-section of the community's young athletes than one that hosts basketball alone.

Year-round indoor demand. Club volleyball season runs January through May, overlapping with and extending beyond basketball season. A facility with multi-court tournament capacity can program volleyball events during months when basketball tournaments are winding down, keeping the courts in use and generating revenue across more of the calendar.

A rapidly growing sport with increasing tournament volume. The 33 percent year-over-year registration increase, the all-time high in high school participation, the explosion of professional leagues and media coverage: all of these trends point to more tournaments being organized, more teams needing places to play, and more host cities needed to accommodate the demand. A new facility entering the market at this moment is entering at the top of the growth curve.

Where the conversation stands

A recreation center committee within the Twin Falls Parks and Recreation Department has been studying this question since 2017. In June 2025, the City Council voted to advance the long-stalled feasibility study. Parks and Recreation Director Wendy Davis said the council's vote "breathed a little bit of life into what I thought was a dying initiative."

A grassroots advocacy campaign has proposed naming a potential facility after U.S. Army Specialist Troy Carlin Linden, a soldier with the 54th Engineer Battalion who was killed in action on July 8, 2006, in Ar Ramadi, Iraq. The proposal comes from a Twin Falls resident who served in the same unit.

Closing

Volleyball is the fastest-growing youth sport in America. It is the most participated-in high school sport for girls. It is the most expensive youth travel sport for families. And it generates millions of dollars in documented economic impact for the cities that can host its tournaments.

Twin Falls has volleyball families, competitive high school programs, and a proposed facility that includes volleyball courts. What it does not yet have is the building. Every weekend between January and May, that gap sends Twin Falls families and their spending to other cities, and it prevents other cities' families from spending a weekend in the Magic Valley.

Whether that changes is a facility question. The sport is already here. The growth is already happening. The spending is already flowing. The only question is which direction it flows.

Frequently Asked Questions

How fast is volleyball growing? Girls' high school volleyball participation hit an all-time high of 470,488 in 2022-23. USA Volleyball club registrations for junior girls rose 40 percent since 2013-14. i9 Sports recorded a 33 percent increase in volleyball registrations in 2024 alone. Boys' high school volleyball participation has grown 56 percent over the past decade. Three professional women's leagues now operate in the U.S.

How much do volleyball tournaments generate for host cities? Mid-sized volleyball tournaments routinely generate $3 million to $4 million in economic impact. The Rocky Top tournaments in Gatlinburg, Tennessee produced over $3.5 million combined. The Nike First in Show tournament in Ocala, Florida generated $3.6 million and nearly 2,000 hotel room nights. At the national level, the AAU Junior National Volleyball Championships generated $760.8 million.

How much does club volleyball cost per family? The average annual cost of a travel volleyball team spot is $3,159, the highest of any youth travel sport. Total costs per player typically range from $3,000 to $5,000 per season before family travel expenses. For families with multiple players, annual costs can exceed $8,000 to $10,000.

Does Idaho have competitive volleyball programs? Yes. Idaho has multiple competitive club programs including Idaho Crush (nationally ranked), Club Idaho (38 years operating), Idaho Show Sports, and Idaho Level Up Volleyball. Twin Falls High School and Canyon Ridge High School both compete in IHSAA volleyball. Idaho club teams travel extensively to Boise, Salt Lake City, and beyond for tournaments.

Could the same facility host both basketball and volleyball tournaments? Yes. Multi-court gymnasium space converts between basketball and volleyball configurations. This is standard design for modern recreation centers. The proposed Twin Falls facility includes both basketball and volleyball courts with tournament hosting capacity.

Is Twin Falls actively considering a recreation center? A city committee has been studying the question since 2017. In June 2025, the City Council voted to advance the feasibility process. No specific site, cost, or funding mechanism has been finalized as of this writing.

Where can residents follow the conversation? Twin Falls City Council meetings are open to the public, and the Parks and Recreation Department posts updates on the city's official website. A community advocacy group is also tracking the issue at twinfallsreccenter.com.