Spokane Hoopfest attendance held steady from last year, as visitors and players experienced cooler weather and a reprieve from potential rain, says Riley Stockton, executive director of Spokane-based nonprofit Spokane Hoopfest Association.

Billed as the largest three-on-three basketball tournament in the world, 4,670 teams participated in the event this year — only 20 teams less than in 2025  — and 18,365 total players. The number of teams registered to play at the event is recovering from a high of over 6,000, prior to the pandemic, to about 3,200 in 2023, which was the first year the event was held after the pandemic-related closures lifted, he says.

“We had way less issues on the courts (this year), and we had great games and great attitudes and great energy all weekend,” Stockton says. “We were thrilled with how everything turned out.”

An estimated 226,000 people attended the three-day event last weekend. Stockton estimates Hoopfest’s total economic impact to be about $47 million, which is similar to the 2025 event.

Of the more than 18,000 players, 8,600 were from Spokane County, and 4,600 traveled to the tournament from other areas of Washington state. More than 1,500 players visited from Idaho, and some players traveled from states further away or other countries, including Canada, Stockton says.

“We are still trending up a little bit,” he says. “Our western Washington participation number was the only number that went down, but I still think there is some room to grow on our end.”

Around 3,000 Hoopfest volunteers closed off 45 city blocks in downtown Spokane and set up 376 street courts, he says. Teams played more than 10,000 basketball games over the weekend.

Not all those games were without injury, Stockton notes. MultiCare Health System, Hoopfest’s official healthcare provider, administered care to 1,124 patients, according to a release from the Tacoma, Washington-based healthcare system. That total increased by 84 patients this year from 2025's tournament. Most of the injuries were minor, but MultiCare reported 44 fractures, 20 Achilles tendon ruptures, and 19 knee injuries.

Over 100 vendors sold food, drinks, and other products, he adds.

Spokane Hoopfest Association is collecting feedback over the next month and expects to begin planning for Hoopfest 2027 shortly after.

“Our site team did a great job being ready for anything that may come, and we had to spend a lot of time on kind of our rain contingency plans and making sure it was good. Luckily, we skated through without rain,” he says. “The energy was great, and it turned out to be a beautiful weekend for us, so we were excited with the way everything turned out.”