San Diego will host the inaugural World Beach Games in 2017.
The city was awarded the hosting rights to the Olympic-style, multi-sport event on Friday by the Association of National Olympic Committees.
Other cities that had expressed interest in hosting the 10-day event included Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Sochi, Russia; Barcelona, and Istanbul.
The ANOC World Beach Games are expected to have a budget of $150 million. The event will be held at San Diego's Mission Beach in September 2017.
The event will feature more than 20 sports, including beach tennis, soccer, volleyball, surfing, jet skiing, triathlon, track and field and basketball.
"I am absolutely stoked at this opportunity," said Vincent Mudd, the businessman who led San Diego's effort to land the games, using surfing lingo. "We are the beach. We live the beach. It's part of our culture."
The global event is patterned after the Asian Beach Games, which has held four editions so far.
The choice of San Diego comes as another California city, Los Angeles, is bidding to host the 2024 Olympics.
In order to avoid any conflict, the beach games will take place after the IOC vote on the 2024 host city in early September 2015 in Lima, Peru.
The World Beach Games are the pet project of ANOC President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah of Kuwait.
