This IS Big League Dreams draw for Clay County ..... Gator Bowl can do their thing ... Clay County can do its thing .... Travel Ball is the ONLY tourism draw that Clay County can afford to compete in .... Michael Clinton Digital Producer- Jacksonville Business Journal Email | Facebook | Twitter | Google+ The future of Jacksonville’s sports tourism economy lies in the hands of the kids. A mix of public and private entities are pushing to attract more youth sporting events to Jacksonville, a far cry from the previous strategy that focused solely on pushing hard to draw big-ticket events like the Super Bowl. The reason? It’s more sustainable. The new strategy is billed as a way to have a broader, more recession-proof sports economy featuring amateur youth events and tournaments, which bring hundreds of people to town for multi-day stays. The area seems well suited for such a pursuit, although it faces the challenge of a dearth of hotel rooms and competition from other cities looking to go down the same path. The idea for the focus came together in March 2013 when the Gator Bowl Association’s marketing committee realized its brand wasn’t well recognized and it was only thought of as a bowl game — despite its involvement with bringing in events like the NCAA basketball and baseball tournaments. A key step in the new approach came when the organization, which was renamed Gator Bowl Sports, launched two nonprofits in the fall, one of which will focus solely on recruiting events to the city. Its goal is to act as a sports commission, a group that organizes and plans sports events, working with public entities and using public and private facilities. That puts Jacksonville in a better position to capture a wide variety of events, say a range of experts in sports tourism. In the past, the Gator Bowl typically went after college sports events — and it still will — but the recruiting of most other events was done by the city, which has more limited resources and increased scrutiny from the public.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 14:55:36 +0000
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