SEPTEMBER INDUSTRY NEWS
Click And Park To Manage Soldier Field Parking
ORLANDO, Fla.—Parking at Soldier Field in Chicago will be managed by Click and Park, an online parking and traffic management system that is co-owned by Gameday Management Group of Orlando. Click and Park will manage parking for all Chicago Bears home games and special events. Consumers may pre-purchase tickets for guaranteed parking spaces at www.soldierfield.clickandpark.com.
Five-Star Basketball Announces New Partnerships
WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N.Y.—Five-Star Basketball has announced its partnership with All Worldwide Travel of Philadelphia and Xubi Sports of Reno, Nev., which manufactures team uniforms.
All Worldwide Travel will coordinate all travel, including buses and air transportation, for Five-Star Basketball’s 60 camps across the country and outside the United States.
Five-Star Basketball’s partnership with Xubi Sports essentially is an endorsement of Xubi Sports, designed to expand Xubi Sports’ presence in grassroots athletics; a Five-Star Basketball executive said Xubi Sports will not provide camp uniforms at this time, but could explore the possibility farther into the partnership.
Oklahoma Tourism Names New Director
OKLAHOMA CITY—Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department Executive Director Hardy Watkins has named Kristina S. Marek as the new director of Oklahoma State Parks. Marek is a 33-year veteran of the State Parks Division, having most recently served as interim director of State Parks and director of conservation and planning.
Rose Quarter’s Oxley Promoted To GM
PORTLAND, Ore.—Officials with the Rose Quarter announced that Chris Oxley has been promoted to general manager of the facility. Oxley, who joined the staff in 1999, had served as assistant general manager since March 2007.
In his new position, Oxley will manage a staff of 800 and will oversee development and programming, tenant relations, financial management, contract negotiations, logistics, community relations, parking, box office management, marketing, public relations and event production.
The Rose Quarter, owned by an affiliate of the Portland Trail Blazers and managed by AEG Facilities, includes the 20,000-seat Rose Garden; 12,000-seat Memorial Coliseum, 6,500-seat Theater of the Clouds; 40,000-square-foot exhibit hall and the Rose Quarter Commons. The multipurpose facility hosts a variety of events, including home games for Portland’s Trail Blazers basketball and Winter Hawks hockey teams.
US Youth Soccer’s Roby Promoted
FRISCO, Texas—Todd Roby has been promoted to director of communications for US Youth Soccer. He previously was senior manager of communications. In his new role, Roby will oversee US Youth Soccer’s communications department, which includes publicity, media relations, publications and other collateral, and internal and external communications.
New Website Designed For High School Recruiting
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—JumpStart 33.com, on online basketball instructional video and recruiting company, has designed a new website to help high school athletes gain more exposure for college recruiting. At www.watchmygamefilm.com, students can register for their own personal webpage and upload game film to the page for a year. Students can send their page links to coaches all across the country, allowing coaches to view up to five games and to access stats, GPA, SAT scores and contact information.
September Is Youth Soccer Month
FRISCO, Texas—US Youth Soccer kicked off the national celebration of Youth Soccer Month on Sept. 1 with the Youth Soccer Month Giant Jersey Tour. The tour will travel more than 7,500 miles, with planned stops in several major cities, at select Major League Soccer games (featuring a halftime Youth Soccer Month $10,000 Kick promotion), and at three National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) College Game of the Week telecasts on Fox Soccer Channel.
The tour features a 15-foot-tall inflatable soccer jersey; Stickley, US Youth Soccer’s mascot; and a Youth Soccer Month-branded SUV to promote the benefits of an active, healthy lifestyle through soccer. In addition, US Youth Soccer has partnered with the U.S. Soccer Foundation’s Passback Program to collect gently used soccer cleats at each tour stop. In conjunction with US Youth Soccer, the foundation hopes to set the world record for the longest chain of shoes, which will be on display at the NSCAA convention in January.
Sports Expo Promotes Youth Sports In Collin County
PLANO, Texas—The second-annual Youth Explore Sports (YES!) Expo will be held Sept. 13 at Collin Creek Mall in Plano. The mission of the expo is to create awareness of and increase participation in activities that foster healthier lives for young people in the community, and it is designed to inform local parents about youth sports programs, techniques, equipment, safety and teamwork skills through sports participation.
The 2007 event was named “Best Locally Created Event” by the National Association of Sports Commissions.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—USA Triathlon (USAT) will bring its 2008 Age Group National and Elite National championships back to Portland on Sept. 20. Portland, Ore., hosted an amateur USAT event last year.
Approximately 1,400 age-group and 100 elite triathletes will compete in the national championships. The top 16 in each age group will earn a spot on Team USA.
The Age-Group and Elite national championships will coincide with the USAT Art & Science of Triathlon International Coaching Symposium, Sept. 21-23, at the Embassy Suites Hotel-Portland Washington Square in Portland.
BASS has announced its 2009 Bassmasters Open schedule, which will run from January through November with three tournaments in each of the organization’s southern, central and northern divisions. The tour will start at Harris Chain of Lakes in Tavares, Fla., and end at Atchafalaya Basin in Morgan City, La. The Open tournaments will be qualifiers to the Bassmaster Elite Series and the Bassmaster Classic. For the complete schedule, visit www.bassmaster.com.
Women’s National Team To Play In Post-Olympics Tour
CHICAGO—U.S. Soccer has announced that the 2008 U.S. Women’s National Team will take on Ireland in a three-match tour following the U.S. team’s gold-medal win in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games in August. The first match will be held Sept. 13 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, followed by another game on Sept. 17 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., and the last game of the tour on Sept. 20 at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill.
U.S. Soccer will cover the games through Match Tracker at www.ussoccer.com.
The United States has defeated Ireland in each of its five previous matches.
Disney To Host Tip-Off Classic
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.—Eight women’s and eight men’s basketball teams from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II will compete in Disney’s Division II Tip-Off Classic at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista.
The women’s tournament will be Oct. 31-Nov. 2, featuring Lake Superior State University, Columbus State University, University of South Carolina-Aiken, Bentley College, Delta State University, University of Alaska-Anchorage, American International College and Southwest Minnesota State University. The men’s tournament, Nov. 7-9, will feature Minnesota State Univeristy-Mankato, Lees-McRae College, University of Southern Indiana, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Saint Martin’s University, Bentley College, University of Montevallo and Florida Southern College.
The classic is produced with the support of the NCAA Division II Commissioners Association.
Las Vegas To Host Billiard Expo
ATLANTA—The Billiard Congress of America (BCA) will hold its 2009 International Billiard & Home Expo June 25-27 at the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas. The expo will feature innovation in commercial and home billiards recreation; typically, it draws thousands of manufacturers, distributors, retailers, dealers and pool-room operators and more than 200 exhibitors.
FLW Outdoors Announces New Kingfish Stop
BENTON, Ky.—FLW Outdoors will bring the Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour and Kingfish Series of king mackerel tournaments to Orange Beach, Ala., on Sept. 12-14. The Alabama Gulf Coast Sports Commission will host the tournaments.
The two king mackerel events will launch from and weigh in at The Wharf, a multipurpose development along Alabama’s Intracoastal Waterway and featuring a 208-slip marina.
Anglers will be competing for more than $100,000 in prize winnings and for qualifying points to the $500,000 Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour Championship in November. Coverage of the Orange Beach tournaments (airing Nov. 16) will reach more than 81 million viewers on Fox Sports Net.
In other FLW Outdoors news, the organization has announced its 2009 tournament schedule. The regular-season schedule will feature six events, kicking off with a $1 million tournament in February and concluding with the $1.5 million Chevy Open in July. For the complete schedule, visit www.flwoutdoors.com.
Breeders’ Cup Adds Charities, Experiential Events
NEW YORK—Organizers of the 2008 Breeders’ Cup World Championships have announced new plans for the event, to be held Oct. 24-25 at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. This year, proceeds from the Breeders’ Cup will benefit broad-based, global nonprofit organizations—St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Susan G. Komen for the Cure—in addition to equine-related charities and Southern California-based charities.
Also, a new, in-field experiential hospitality area will include chalets, cabanas and premium grandstand seating in the new Champions Village, designed by LeadDog Marketing Group and marketed by QuintEvents.
Changes In Store For Conquer The Coast
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas—The fifth-annual Conquer the Coast 65-mile bicycle ride is scheduled for Sept. 27 in Corpus Christi. Sean Murphy is the new chairman and NuStar Energy the new title sponsor. More than 2,000 riders are expected.
The ride will encompass the Corpus Christi Bay, and will start and finish at Whataburger Field, home of the Minor League Corpus Christi Hooks. In addition, there will be a 25-mile fun ride along Ocean Drive.
Epic Sports and Entertainment will manage the event.