Scoring With Tourism

Along with spring breakers funneling down I-75 and flowing through Southwest Florida International Airport this spring are hundreds of amateur softball and baseball players, heading to Fort Myers for the annual Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic. But while the spring breakers veer westward to island and beach resorts, college players arriving for the four-week tournament will pull into inland hotels along U.S. 41 and at interstate exits.

They won’t spend their days basking on the beaches, but working up a sweat at the Terry Park, Lee County, Cape Coral and other sports complexes, and they’ll spend their money at restaurants and stores near the sports venues and their hotels. A few might even stay a couple of extra days in town to go to the beach—all the while spending money at Southwest Florida businesses.

The Collegiate Classic, which draws hundreds of NCAA and NAIA softball and baseball teams from around the country, is among dozens of amateur sports events that tourism officials have lured to fuel the local economy.

"For tourism, this is fat bucks," says John Steinweg, sales director of Cape Coral’s Screenprint Plus, which makes caps, shirts and banners for the event. "They bring in a lot of dollars to the area. They use a lot of [hotel] rooms. They spend a lot of money in restaurants."

One event alone can generate $4,000 to $40,000 in orders at Screenprint Plus. Steinweg estimates that sports tourism represents about 10 percent of the company’s annual business.

Collegiate sports events are just the beginning. Throughout the year, the area’s facilities and amenities draw adult and children’s teams and leagues in sports that range from football and soccer to open-water swimming, BMX off-road bicycle racing and roller hockey championships. They produce millions of dollars, and an economic boon for Charlotte, Collier and Lee counties.

A Look at the Stats
Sports events represent a small but growing segment of the multibillion-dollar tourism industry in Southwest Florida.

From 2003 to 2007, Lee County hosted 284 amateur sports events, which generated 361,545 room nights, $1.55 million in bed tax revenues, $7.55 million in sales tax revenues and a total economic impact of more than $210.27 million, according to the Lee County Sports Authority, an arm of the Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau. Those figures don’t count revenue from Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins spring training, which generated $24.9 million annually per team in economic impact, according to a 2000-2001 state study. Jeff Mielke, executive director of the Lee County Sports Authority, believes that figure, based on a state average, is probably closer to $75 million to $80 million.

Although it’s a small fraction of the county’s $2.25 billion-a-year tourism industry, sports tourism attracts people who might not otherwise come to Southwest Florida. It also increases the number of visitors year-round—and family-oriented sports events help fill hotel rooms and boost business off-season, when it’s most needed.

"We are really dependent on sports-tourism business, especially in the fall after kids are back in school and [in-state tourism] ebbs," says Tamara Piggott, deputy director of the Lee County VCB. "It’s a critical arm of the tourism business."

One of the biggest moneymakers among the amateur events is the North American Roller Hockey Championships, which bring hundreds of young hockey players and their families to Southwest Florida in the slower summer months. The championships take place every other July, and generated an economic impact in 2007 of $14.62 million and 19,362 room nights. The annual Gene Cusic tournament brought in $10.67 million in economic impact and 11,391 room nights last year.

"We’re like, ‘Woo-hoo! Heads in beds!’" says Colleen DePasquale, general manager of the Hilton Garden Inn in Fort Myers. Sports tourism helps fill rooms at the inland hotel, boosting occupancy rates during slow periods. Last April, the hotel reached 94 percent occupancy on the weekends, thanks to baseball, basketball and soccer players.

"It was awesome," she says. "We had a great April, and that’s hard to do."

In the Winner’s Seat
Tourism officials have escalated the focus on sports tourism in recent years. In 2003, the creation of the Lee County Sports Authority expanded the effort from one staffer in the visitor and convention bureau to a three-person staff with an operating budget of $600,000 to $700,000, funded by bed-tax revenue.

"The county finally decided that sports tourism has become a big enough business and a competitive enough business that we needed to have a department [for it]," says Mielke.

Collier County formed a sports council in 2006. Its business members are primarily from hotels, although restaurant and real estate representatives have expressed interest in joining. The Charlotte Harbor & the Gulf Islands Visitor’s Bureau has a sports marketing manager, and tourism director Becky Bovell anticipates adding a sports authority after more facilities, including a riverfront conference center, open in 2009.

The Lee County authority, working with the county’s parks and recreation department, has diversified the types of events, which used to be mainly baseball, softball and soccer. About 25 sports, including cheerleading, flag football, weightlifting and running, have brought competitors to indoor and outdoor venues in the past couple of years.

One of the area’s greatest assets—water—also has drawn athletic events. Through its relationship with USA Swimming, the Lee County authority hosted the Open Water National Championships for four years, including last October’s world trials. Those also served as the 2008 Summer Olympic Games trials.

"It’s probably one of the most prestigious events," Mielke says.

The authority works with a three-person organizing committee and the five-person athletics department staff of the county’s parks and recreation department to manage the events. Mielke anticipates increasing the number of basketball events this year, thanks to new parks and recreation facilities that include five indoor courts.

Although the region’s beaches and climate are factors in attracting events, the facilities—from airport and hotels to the quality of the playing fields—are often the key.

"When 13-year-old kids can play on the game fields that the Twins or Red Sox play on, that’s quite an attractive thing," Mielke says.

The challenge lies in the availability of fields, parks and gyms. Officials in all three counties recognize that local teams and residents want to play, too.

"You have to compete against local citizens for park space when you’re trying to bring in a soccer tournament, and you’ve got 3,000 kids who demand use of that facility every weekend for their local soccer leagues. You can only remove them so many times before it becomes a negative thing," Mielke acknowledges.

Unless more fields and facilities are constructed—and none are planned at this point—he expects the number of events to be capped at 65 to 70 a year. "There are only so many days in the calendar for us to be able to host events," Mielke says. However, increasing the size and type of events (such as team sports instead of individual sports) could boost the economic impact without taking away more weekends for local use.

Charlotte County, which didn’t have any sports events to speak of in 2001, hosted about 10 in 2007. Emphasizing sports tourism is something Bovell has believed is important since she took the reins of the visitors bureau in 2001.

"At that time, the tourism focus was strictly leisure. I felt that it was critical to diversify the tourism impact for Charlotte County," she says. "When you have state or regional or even national or international sporting events, they contribute significantly to the increased economic impact. We’ve proven that."

One of its biggest, Baseball’s Elite Summer Teams (B.E.S.T.) World Championship brought 102 teams with players 18 and under, totaling 14,000 room nights last July. The total economic impact from that event was approximately $6.4 million, with $66,000 in bed tax revenues. Other events include the Oh Boy! Oberto Redfish Cup (Punta Gorda is the tournament’s only permanent stop) and the Charlotte Harbor Kayak & Wildlife Festival.

The bureau has not compiled an economic figure for all events, but the number of room nights reflects an impact on other businesses, Bovell says. "If they’re spending the night and they’re staying, they’re obviously [using] restaurants and other retail outlets."

Charlotte County is hosting several new events this year, including a Florida High School Athletic Association track-and-field meet in late April at Punta Gorda’s Wallace Keller Sports Complex.
Bovell anticipates even more opportunities in 2009, when a $27 million renovation to the Charlotte Sports Park will be complete. The Tampa Bay Rays will have spring training there, bringing national exposure to the county. Also, the expected 2009 opening of the Charlotte Harbor Event & Conference Center could transform into gymnastics, cheerleading and boxing arenas.

"Up until recently, except for the baseball stadium and the other fields and parks, we really didn’t have the infrastructure to support these different things. But now we do," she says. "The field’s wide open when it comes to the type of event we can host here."

In Collier County, sports-marketing efforts are relatively new. A multitude of factors came together to put them in play, including demand from hoteliers seeking to fill rooms in the off-season, Florida Sports Foundation support, sports-marketing programs at schools such as Florida Gulf Coast University, and new, larger facilities, such as the $54 million North Collier Regional Park that opened last year, says Jack Wert, executive director of the Naples Marco Island Everglades Convention and Visitors Bureau.