Youth sports tourism fuels Southwest Florida growth

Evergreen, Colorado, is an unincorporated town of about 9,000 people in the Rocky Mountain foothills west of Denver. A few years ago, Evergreen High School boys varsity lacrosse head coach Mark Stapor was seeking a tournament where his team could compete over spring break, with officially sanctioned games that count toward its regular-season record. The youth sports event management company Trilogy Lacrosse knew where to send them. 

Trilogy handled the logistics, from room and board to playing schedules, for Evergreen and dozens of other teams that signed up from across the country. In March 2025, they descended on Collier County’s Paradise Coast Sports Complex in Naples for five days of play.

At an elevation more than 7,000 feet below Evergreen’s mountain terrain, Stapor and his team found something like paradise: a 175-acre, $80 million multisport complex near the western edge of the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge and a short drive from area beaches.

Since it opened in 2020, PCSC and its general manager, Adrian Moses, have fostered the growth of sports, such as soccer, lacrosse and flag football, along with popular mainstays baseball and softball, all with notable success. Paradise Coast counted about 719,000 visits in the 2024-25 season, including repeat visitors.

The now-regional sports hub and its partners typify the latest beneficiaries of a booming, year-round youth travel sports industry. Professionals said the growth is driven by investment in infrastructure; increasing participation across a wide range of sports; and consolidation among youth sports event management companies such as New Jersey-based Trilogy and Massachusetts-based conglomerate 3STEP Sports.

PCSC was developed through a public-private partnership between the county and The Sports Facilities Companies, a youth sports facility development and management company headquartered in Clearwater.

“We’re the largest sports management company in the country, and we’re also building more sports facilities than anybody else at the moment in this country,” says Moses, who was recently appointed vice president of venue operations for SFC. “So, the impact that we have is broad across all 50 states.”

Trilogy came to Paradise Coast in 2022, holding an event with six lacrosse teams over one week. This year, it brought in more than 40 teams from at least a dozen states over four weeks, including about 1,200 athletes and coaches.

“We’re just seeing more kids playing lacrosse every year, and our events are showing really strong organic growth within them,” says Trilogy President Jimmy Vlahakis.

The Evergreen lacrosse team returned again this year and plans to come back annually, Stapor said, as long as Trilogy handles the details.

“For a high school kid playing lacrosse, is there a better place than Naples to go for your spring break?” Stapor asks. “I don’t think there is.”

Collier tourist development officials and SFC leadership support that notion, with multisport facilities growing throughout the state.

The Dynasty, a planned $1 billion, 159-acre Central Florida multisport park with hotels, retail and more, is expected to open as soon as next year, joining complexes such as SFC’s Publix Sports Park in Panama City Beach and Lake Myrtle Sports Complex in Auburndale.

“I think the trend that is most relevant right now is the explosion of (sports) facilities around the state of Florida and certainly in the southeastern United States,” says Jeff Mielke, Lee County Sports Development executive director. “There’s a lot more competition than there was 10 years ago all up and down the state of Florida (and), I would call them, the warmer states, that are all really evolving into sports tourism hotbeds.”

Lee, Charlotte and neighboring counties and cities pursue travel teams through investment and promotion of new, existing and potential developments.

In Fort Myers, Indiana-based developer Card & Associates is engaged with the city in a study on the economic viability of turning the old City of Palms Park in Midtown, which is scheduled for demolition, into a multiuse venue built around sports tourism.

“Sports tourism development is a huge industry,” says Card & Associates Florida consultant Cole Peacock, “not only in Florida but nationwide. It’s definitely something that would play into the use of this facility.”

Pay to play

With its year-round warm weather and investment in infrastructure, Florida is a leading sports travel destination, even though hurricanes, lightning storms and rainy-season showers can put a damper on games.

The trade association Sports ETA found that the economic impact generated by sports tourism was greater in Florida than any other state in 2023, followed by Texas and California, with sports travelers across the U.S. spending $52.5 billion on events and programs.

Moses says the youth travel sports sector is a “hardy, consistent” industry, resistant to recession and reliable because events are booked well in advance. Families that travel for tournaments often extend their stays.

The Aspen Institute estimates that U.S. families spend $30 billion to $40 billion on their children’s sports activities each year and found that travel is the costliest aspect of youth sports, ahead of equipment, training and registration fees.

Berkshire School girls varsity lacrosse team members in Sheffield, Massachusetts, paid $1,250 per player this year to attend one of Trilogy’s five-day tournaments at Paradise Coast in Naples, head coach Casey Lyons wrote, not including ancillary expenses. Her players in recent years visited downtown Naples, the beach and Celebration Park food trucks.

“The Naples trip is always a highlight and a great way to jump-start our season,” Lyons wrote in an email. “(PCSC) staff is outstanding, and the quality of the experience is a big reason we continue to go back each year.”

Event management

Industry growth is being facilitated behind the scenes by youth sports event management companies such as Trilogy, Sanford-based baseball operator Perfect Game and conglomerate 3STEP Sports, which has acquired dozens of smaller event companies.

“The industry is experiencing growth through consolidation, with larger organizations acquiring tournament assets and expanding their reach,” writes Sean Walter, business development director of sales and sports for the Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach Visitor & Convention Bureau. “This evolution provides brands with increased access to targeted and previously untapped audiences.”

3STEP is the parent company of Football University, which is set to host its first major girls flag football competition in June at Paradise Coast: the FBU Girls Top Gun National Championship.

Flag football has quickly grown in popularity at the high school level, in part because of its lower cost compared with tackle football.

“I predict flag football will be one of the biggest booming [sports] over the next five years,” says FBU Managing Partner Steve Quinn. “It’s very easy. It doesn’t cost a lot; you get a shirt and some flags.”

Travel sports event companies cater to demand among athletes for high-level competition. Some compile social media-ready player profiles and serve as a resource for collegiate and professional talent scouts. That has led to an emphasis on competition over casual recreational programs, some say, which may not be in every player’s best interest, especially for younger athletes.

“It helps and it hurts,” Stapor says. “Kids are better than they’ve ever been at the game at a younger age. But we’re also losing recreational programs at the same time.”

The national pastime

While Paradise Coast is the region’s latest and most ambitious effort to attract players, Lee County has deepened its commitment to baseball.

“We are a baseball destination first just because of the phenomenal facilities that we have here,” Mielke says. “We all take what we’re really good at, and we try to stay the best at it. Where Lee County continues to reign at the top of the mountain is baseball and softball and some of the outdoor sports.”

Lee is a multisport destination but has invested heavily in its diamonds, with a dozen area fields offering expansive tournament options. The county’s $78 million JetBlue Park complex, which opened in 2012, and its longtime partnership with youth baseball event company Perfect Game have helped grow the sector.

“We have 24 major league baseball fields before we even think about stepping into a high school facility, and we have some of the best high school baseball fields in the state,” Mielke says.

Professional teams come to Florida each year for spring training, providing a surge in spending and media visibility. In March alone, the Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins account for $69 million in economic impact, Mielke said. Youth and adult amateur travel sports are less visible but offer a greater economic boost and year-round play.

“Youth sports generate around $77 million of economic impact,” Mielke says, resulting in “lots of hotels being filled, spread out throughout the year.”

Often, a single youth baseball tournament — such as Perfect Game’s Sophomore World Championship in September or Underclass World Championship in October, held at major league facilities during slower months for Southwest Florida tourism — draws hundreds of out-of-town teams.

“A lot of folks don’t understand how many hundreds of teams are in our destination on a weekend through, let’s say, a Perfect Game tournament,” Mielke says. “But their restaurant is full of kids in uniforms and that’s the only way they feel it. Now I think it’s starting to become really recognizable as a force.”

Mielke and Perfect Game have been developing baseball events in the area for decades. The company organized thousands of events across the country in 2026.

“Jeff (Mielke) is one of the pioneers of really understanding what businesses like us were going to be able to do for sports tourism in these communities,” says Taylor McCollough, Perfect Game vice president of operations. “None of that stuff would have been possible without Jeff understanding what we were trying to do in the early 2000s. He was with us every step of the way.”

Lee County’s sports tourism market continues to experience “incremental” growth, Mielke said, complemented by other sports gaining momentum, including pickleball.

Room to grow

PicklePlex of Punta Gorda, which opened in 2019, is among the growing number of Southwest Florida developments serving players in what is often called the fastest-growing sport.

The nonprofit, membership-based facility expanded from 16 to 24 courts, with plans to build a new welcome center, said Executive Director Katie Mell. It hosts about 40 tournaments each year as the sport grows in popularity, with younger players increasingly participating.

“As the growth expands, so does the age span,” Mell says.

The Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach Visitor & Convention Bureau can add pickleball to the long list of youth and amateur sports it attracts year-round.

“Attracting youth sports creates a multiplier effect,” Walter writes, “drawing not only athletes but also their families — including parents, grandparents and siblings — who travel to our destination for competition and often extend their stay into a broader vacation experience.”

The area is also known for Charlotte Sports Park, which hosts the Tampa Bay Rays’ spring training games. Fiscal year 2024 was record-setting for sports tourism, Walter said, with about 20% year-over-year growth. The trend was disrupted by 2025’s active hurricane season, but Walter said those events have been rescheduled this year.

The event company DS Sports organizes the area’s annual collegiate Snowbird Baseball Classic. DS Chief Development Officer Nolan Neiman, also head baseball coach at Manatee High School in Bradenton, said the area’s high-quality fields position it for future growth.

“I don’t see [youth sports tourism] slowing down, especially with the rapid growth of the region in general,” Neiman says. “At the end of the day, the economic impact we bring to that area is only starting.”

Sports penny ballot

Collier County voters will have a chance in the November general election to vote on whether to increase county tourist taxes by 1 percentage point, to 6%. The additional revenue would be used in part to expand Paradise Coast Sports Complex to meet growing demand.

Moses noted that although sports tournaments are the major draw, a greater share of the facility’s time still goes to community events such as live entertainment or open play sessions.

“I found a company that matches my own personal mission,” Moses says, “and that’s to improve the health and economic vitality of the communities that we serve.”