Paint Flying at Audubon Park
On a September morning at Audubon Park, the usual sounds of a Garland weekend — joggers, dog walkers, the occasional pickup basketball game — will be replaced by something considerably louder. Starting September 11, the grounds host the NXL Lone Star Open, a four-day professional paintball tournament that draws elite and divisional teams from across the country and around the world.
The event runs through September 14, and spectators are welcome to attend at no charge.
What the NXL Actually Is
The National Xball League is the premier professional paintball organization in the sport. Its season moves city to city, and the Lone Star Open represents the circuit’s fourth major event of the 2026 season. By this point in the calendar, teams are competing with their standings on the line heading into the final stretch of the year, which tends to sharpen the level of play on the field.
The format mixes professional squads — the top tier of competitive paintball — with divisional teams that represent a range of skill levels from serious amateurs to near-professionals. That structure means the action is essentially continuous across the four days, with different divisions cycling through competition while the pros play their own matches.
What to Expect on the Field
For anyone who has only seen recreational paintball, NXL-style tournament play looks and moves differently. Teams use coordinated bunker layouts, and the pace of a professional match is rapid — players communicate constantly, rotate through positions, and make decisions in fractions of a second. The format is designed for spectators as well as competitors, with clear sight lines to the fields built into how tournaments are staged.
Gear runs to specialized markers, masks, and jerseys, and the pit areas where teams prep between games have their own rhythm. Coaches review footage, players clean equipment, and the logistical operation of running a roster through a multi-day bracket plays out in real time alongside the competition itself.
Why Audubon Park
Audubon Park on Garland’s east side has open acreage that can accommodate the field layouts, staging, and foot traffic a tournament of this scale requires. The park is large enough to absorb multiple simultaneous fields while keeping walkways clear — a logistical requirement for an event drawing teams and support crews from out of state.
Garland’s position in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro makes the location practical for visiting teams traveling in from around the country. Hotels, restaurants, and highway access along the I-30 and 635 corridors are within a short drive of the park, which matters when a team is hauling equipment cases and has early morning check-ins across multiple days.
A Regional Pull with Local Roots
Events like the NXL Lone Star Open tend to function as economic and community touchpoints in ways that aren’t immediately obvious from the outside. Competing teams book rooms, buy meals, and spend time in the surrounding area. Support crews and families of competitors add to that footfall. A four-day tournament with a national field of participants brings a consistent stream of visitors to Garland who might otherwise have no particular reason to be here.
For local paintball players and enthusiasts, the event offers something harder to put a number on: the chance to watch the best practitioners of their sport compete at close range, without traveling to another state or buying an expensive ticket.
Attending as a Spectator
Spectators can access the event at Audubon Park across all four days, September 11 through 14. The tournament begins at 9:00 a.m. on opening day. Specific field maps, divisional schedules, and any updated logistics are available through the NXL’s official site.
Audubon Park is a city park, so typical park considerations apply — wear comfortable shoes, plan for late-summer heat, and arrive with water. The competitive matches themselves provide enough variety across a day to make even a few hours worthwhile for a casual visitor curious about a sport they may not have watched live before.
For Garland, the Lone Star Open is a reminder that the city’s parks and open spaces can host events well beyond the local and the routine — and that world-level competition occasionally shows up right in the neighborhood.
