Mayor Bissen confident in Maui Invitational's staying power, The Sentry's return – Spectrum News

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LAHAINA, Hawaii — Maui Mayor Richard Bissen strode to center court at the Lahaina Civic Center, handed off the game ball to official Chris Pacsi and flashed a shaka.
Bissen has made it a point to appear at his county’s most iconic sporting event, the Southwest Maui Invitational, since it returned to the Valley Isle in 2024.
“There’s just so much benefit to the community,” the former judge told Spectrum News in a corner of the county-run gym as USC and Arizona State prepared to tip off.
State and Maui officials have said past Maui Invitationals have brought in an upward of $20 million in annual economic impact. The PGA Tour’s season-opening event held several miles up the road, The Sentry, is said to be responsible for another $50 million for Maui. But the January 2026 edition of that event was first moved off its longtime site, the Kapalua Plantation Course, then outright canceled amid a water rights dispute in West Maui.
The Plantation Course, which had been closed for two months as water use was curtailed, reopened to golfers in early November. Kapalua General Manager Alex Nakajima told Forbes that it has recovered well.
The Maui Invitational has also navigated fraught events in the last few years — the COVID-19 pandemic and the Lahaina wildfires. Event operator KemperSports was forced to move the tournament off island three times in four years because of them.
This year marked the first time since 2018 and 2019 that the tournament was held at the same location in consecutive years.
“It’s the 42^nd annual. This has become a piece of Maui and Lahaina’s annual events,” Bissen said. “Now when the fires happened (in August 2023), this event moved to Honolulu and The Sentry continued to come. This year it’s the other way around; The Sentry’s not able to be played this year. They’ll be back next year. This tournament being here helps fill that space, for sure.”
There is a new threat in the form of a rival tournament, the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas — also during Thanksgiving week — that can offer millions of dollars to attract elite college basketball programs that Maui was accustomed to getting without big payouts thanks to its setting and elite tradition.
Bissen was asked if he is concerned about the Maui Invitational’s sustainability, given that change.
“KemperSports does a great job lining up the teams. You can see next year’s teams already up there,” Bissen replied, gesturing at a banner for the eight teams announced for the 2026 field. “We’ve got great teams coming, Clemson, Colorado (State), Arizona. No, we know there are going to continue to be great teams that come every year. A lot of benefits to this tournament.”
Bissen, who managed Maui’s response to the August 2023 wildfires that killed 102 people and destroyed thousands of structures in Lahaina, announced a re-election campaign on Nov. 7.
It was impossible to notice this week that, unlike nearly every past edition of the nationally televised tournament at the 2,400-seat LCC, the crowds were not packed to the brim — even at Wednesday’s 9:30 a.m. championship. Open seats in the stands were easy to spot in the upper rows for both teams’ fan bases as well as in the neutral seating across the court that usually goes to Maui residents.
Entering the tournament, the eight-team field was considered a cut or two below Maui’s usual standard. The lone ranked team in the field, No. 23 North Carolina State, went 1-2. But the winners bracket became an impromptu Pac-12 reunion and the championship, won by USC, featured some impressive performances.
The coaches of the two teams in the championship game, USC’s Eric Musselman and Arizona State’s Bobby Hurley, hailed the tournament’s tradition and the experience they had this week, and said the game environments met their expectations.
“It’s been special both as a player and coach to be here and feel the energy in the building,” said Hurley, who was the 1992 Maui co-Most Valuable Player for Duke. “It’s just different, and it’s unique. Our fan base, I can’t thank them enough. That was maybe as loud a couple of days of cheering that I’ve ever had at Arizona State just in terms of our fan base just being locked into these games and really supporting our team.”
Musselman was asked in the post-game about the possibility of bringing his team back sooner, given that the NCAA’s old four-year rule for multi-team events is being phased out next season.
“I mean, I’d like to come back next year, but I know there’s probably a field already,” Musselman said. “Then it’s up to admin, too. The landscape is changing. But I know myself and our players and all of our families — this is the second time I’ve done it (2022 with Arkansas), and both experiences were incredible. I used it in the recruiting for this year’s team. I told the guys we have a chance to go to Maui and how great it is and how cool it is for your families to come, and with the Name, Image, and Likeness now, we had almost every family — each player was represented by a family member, which maybe four or five years ago, that didn’t happen. But now with (NIL), that’s one of the huge benefits is just to walk to the pool and just see everybody’s family out there. And the weather has been perfect.
“For us, for USC, it was a perfect trip. I can tell you that.”
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.

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