Scoring With Tourism

"We didn’t have the facilities previous to that. We had a couple of facilities [where] we could do, maybe, a small, 15- to 20-team event; even then, they would have to be spread out. Now we can house fairly large events in one facility," he explains.

In 2007, the Collier sports council’s first full year in operation with the new facility, it hosted 33 local, regional, state and national events, with an estimated economic impact of $2.5 million.

"That’s new business for us," Wert says. "That’s new economic impact and spending in the community that we didn’t have before."

Goals for 2008 are to host two events a month, some of which will be local, one-day competitions.
Wert anticipates 10 to 12 major, multiple-day events in 2008, including a fast-pitch softball tournament, state adult softball tournament and an EVP (Extreme Volleyball Professionals) Tour beach volleyball event. Its largest event is the Kelme Florida Cup, which generated an economic impact of more than $264,000 in January.

During a Florida Youth Soccer Association tournament last year, which drew 103 teams, the council didn’t tip off local restaurants about the influx of teams, and spots like Cici’s Pizza ended up running out of food, says Ralph Pryor, the council’s sports coordinator. "Now we’re doing a better job along those lines," he says.

Scoring Big
A number of businesses besides restaurants and hotels benefit from sports events, including car rental agencies, sports equipment stores and trophy shops. And especially with youth leagues, events become family affairs, drawing parents and siblings who are likely to visit local attractions when they’re not cheering.

When the Kia Tigers traveled from South Korea to Charlotte County for spring training in 2006, members of the professional baseball team spent more than $10,000 at the GNC store at Port Charlotte Town Center buying vitamins and other items. Caterers and restaurants, trainers and others in the medical community and fishing shops also are called upon during events, says Bovell.

At this point, sports tourism is a bonus for local businesses, Pryor says, but he is optimistic that the industry could become a catalyst for new and expanding enterprises if the number and size of events continue to grow.

"I know [businesses] see the impact; I just don’t know if they realize who’s responsible for it," Mielke says. "They know that all of a sudden, one weekend, the restaurant is full of little girls in soccer uniforms. People don’t realize that those folks are here for a reason, and that’s because they’re attracted here by the county’s sports development office. We are a department that drives millions of dollars into our community that don’t take any local taxpayer dollars."

He estimates that local businesses are asked to help with events about 40 percent of the time, from providing entertainment to awards. Some attractions and other businesses reach out to the groups with discounts and advertising at the tournaments. Hotels get a piece of the action by providing rooms, often at a group discount rate.

"A lot of [the inland properties’] business comes from sports. If sports efforts aren’t solid, they’re going to have a lot of empty hotel rooms," Mielke says.

February’s ACE Group Classic golf tournament in Naples, which has given more than $1.7 million to Southwest Florida charities in its 20 years, drew 108,375 spectators last year as well as the players and their families, the management team and vendors, all of whom need accommodations. The title sponsor typically books the majority of rooms needed at the Ritz-Carlton, Naples, Golf Resort.

"It’s really driving and spiking [hotels’] revenue in that point of time," says tournament director Jason Camp.

Other companies that benefit include Club Car, which provides golf carts.

"It’s hard for them to actually fill our needs. We’re taking every golf cart available in Southwest Florida that’s not being used at a golf course," Camp says.

The advantage of sports events for inland hotels is the timing, since most of the tournaments take place on weekends when there are few business travelers, says the Hilton Garden Inn’s DePasquale. Inland properties are closer than beachfront resorts to most venues for the sports events.

"People don’t come to the corner of College and Summerlin for the weekend. They’re going to come down to Fort Myers Beach for the weekend," she says. "We need those sports."

Each month, she anticipates a couple weekends’ worth of business from athletic events. In the long run, that helps keep her 50-person staff on full-time status.

"The other part of it is what it does for the community—attractions and restaurants," she says. "How busy would they really be on a weekend in April and May if we didn’t have 40 soccer teams coming in with their parents?"