The Host With The Most

CVBs and Sports Commissions Help Event Planners Win Big

By Michelle Martin

Event planners hold tens of thousands of amateur sporting events each year, and each year they are challenged with selecting a city to host their events. How do they determine which city woud be the best destination, and what kind of support and special services could they request or even expect from the host city’s convention and visitors bureau (CVB) or sports commission? SportsEvents spoke with industry officials, including two CVBs and one sports commission, to learn how they’re setting their sports destinations apart from others to win event bids and to win over event organizers once the planning begins and the event is under way.

According to Don Schumacher, executive director of the National Association of Sports Commissions (NASC), event planners usually partner with a local organization, such as a CVB or sports commission, because “having a CVB or sports commission will have already paved the way for events within the community,” he said. “A CVB or sports commission understands that event planners need local help in coordinating volunteers and establishing contacts with local businesses and parks and recreation officials. Event planners like to partner with cities with a CVB or sports commission that is already familiar with how events run and that can start work right away.”

CVBs and sports commissions often work in partnership with other local departments, such as parks and recreation, to develop a winning strategy for hosting sports events and helping event planners. As director of parks and recreation for the city of Columbus, Ind., Chuck Wilt is often asked how other communities could copy the success Columbus has had as a sports destination—having grown from annually hosting approximately 15 sports events just five years ago to more than 60 sports events this year. “Others see the money in sports tourism and want to get in on it immediately,” he said, “but it’s hard to put everything together in just a few years. We’ve learned the importance of looking at the city as a big circle, and within that circle are resources that enable the community to do anything if we’re willing to work together and share resources. We have always worked together, so it was obvious that we should do so in sports as well. It’s the only way it will work.”

Familiarity Of Facilities

The number and quality of fields and facilities—and close relationships with the directors at those facilities—could be the deciding factor in whether or not event owners consider an event a success, according to destination officials.

“The most important thing is knowing your inventory of facilities and local coaches and facility directors,” said Frank Lett, associate executive director of the CVB for Kingsport, Tenn., located in the northeast corner of Tennessee and within 45 minutes of Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia. Lett, who oversees the sports market in Kingsport, said the area has a large concentration of basketball and baseball venues, including the 5,500-seat gymnasium at Dobyns-Bennett High School, which has helped bring Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Basketball and United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) Baseball to Kingsport for 17 consecutive years.

Coaches and facility directors at Dobyns-Bennett and other sports venues play a vital role toward the success of the sports events held there, according to Lett. “They serve as site directors. Event rights holders like knowing that the people they work with know the venues and that they’ll often be working with the same person from year to year,” he said.

Dobyns-Bennett also hosts the AAU Elementary School Duals wrestling competition, which has grown from eight teams to almost 25 teams in its 10-year history. Tony Staley, sports manager for AAU Wrestling and Athletics, said he never worries about the Duals at Dobyns-Bennett. “The AAU National Committee doesn’t even have to send anyone to oversee the event because the coaches organize the event themselves and make sure everything is done correctly, before and after the event.”

Similarly, fields and facilities are serious business in Columbus, Ind., whose parks and recreation department received the National Recreation and Parks Association’s National Gold Medal Award for excellence in parks and recreation maintenance. But Jim Dietz, sports consultant for the Columbus Area Visitors Center (CAVC) and a member of the CAVC board of directors for seven years, said the area’s “first-class” ball, golf and swim facilities weren’t built with big tournaments in mind, but rather for the enjoyment of local residents. “That shows a certain amount of interest in and passion for sports from the community,” he said, adding that the city is planning a new outdoor sports complex downtown and is considering a new indoor facility. Wilt added, “The people who use our facilities locally become our ambassadors, and pretty soon more people are wanting to come and play here.”

Tonya Perkins, USSSA Fast-Pitch assistant regional director for the Midwest and Indiana state director, has brought the USSSA Girls Fast-Pitch World Series to Columbus since 2004. “The CAVC is the best visitors center I’ve ever worked with,” she said, “and the parks and recreation department always keeps the fields up. The maintenance is phenomenal; the fields are always perfect, even after a hard rain.”

In fact, parks and recreation workers have been out on the fields at 2 a.m. after a hard rain so that teams could start on time the next day, Wilt said, adding, “We treat each game as if it’s a World Series.”