Youth sports bring big business to Northwest Indiana.
by Rick A. Richards
There are countless basketball courts, baseball and softball diamonds and soccer fields in Northwest Indiana.
Consider that once school is out for the summer, nearly all of them are busy. For Northwest Indiana, youth athletic competition translates into a healthy bottom line for businesses.
When teams from around Indiana and across the nation compete in Northwest Indiana, that means hotels are full, restaurants are busy and gas pumps are filling gas tanks.
But those teams don't show up by accident. It takes work to organize a tournament, says Jason Miller, sports development manager for the LaPorte County Convention & Visitors Bureau. “The reason we do this is as an economic driver for the county,” says Miller. “We look at how many room nights we'll get from these events, and over and above that, they're going to shop in our stores and eat in our restaurants.”
Miller says the LCCVB acts as an intermediary by putting the sanctioning bodies that hold tournaments in touch with organizations that have the facilities. “Once we do that, we are hands-off when it comes to running the tournaments,” says Miller, adding that the LCCVB helps market and promote the tournaments.
“Four or five years ago, the LCCVB realized the economic impact youth sports has,” says Miller.
One of the major participants in events across Northwest Indiana is the Baseball Players Association (BPA) and the National Softball Association (NSA), both based in Nicholasville, Ky., and headed by Hugh Cantrell. Together, both organizations put on between 12,000 and 15,000 baseball and softball tournaments around the country.
“Indiana is a great state to work with,” says Cantrell. “The events are well run and the communities have made sure to have facilities that are great for the teams and fans.”
This year alone, LaPorte County will host 14 different youth baseball and softball tournaments, a skateboard event in Michigan City and a volleyball tournament at New Prairie High School. Each brings in hundreds of participants, along with coaches, family members and fans.
In St. Joseph County, the situation is the same, says Betsy Kwiatkowski, director of sports event sales for the St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce. Among the major youth events scheduled this summer are three youth baseball tournaments involving 130 teams that book 1,200 hotel room nights; a youth soccer tournament at the University of Notre Dame that includes 2,100 participants and books 1,100 room nights; and a youth ice hockey tournament that includes 750 participants and reserves 400 hotel rooms.
Erika Scheeringa, director of public and community relations for the South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority in Lake County, says the agency has been tracking the economic impact of youth sports since 2005, when 10 events brought in 2,311 participants, 6,256 visitors and contributed $1.25 million to the economy.
Last year there were 24 events that drew 21,957 participants, more than 55,000 visitors and contributed more than $3.35 million to the economy. In the past six years, says Scheeringa, youth sports have lured more than 210,000 visitors to Lake County with an estimated economic impact of more than $14.88 million.
Jason Sands, director of sports development for the South Shore CVA, says Lake County communities have invested a lot of money and resources to develop youth sports facilities. “We help bring tournaments here,” says Sands. “We create ads and banners and do press releases for the organizers so they can concentrate on putting on the tournament.”
Sands says there is competition for events, so Lake County does what it can to provide blocks of rooms, dinner coupons and other enticements. “When we have an event, we send the teams coupons via email. We also ask for their feedback on their visit and that helps us gather information we can use for our local customers.”
Dia Ferry, director of sales and marketing for White Lodging Properties, says youth sports are a large part of the company's summer business. “Youth sports have provided area hotels with additional demand and have had an economic impact on Northwest Indiana throughout the years.”
Ferry says White Lodging works with the South Shore CVA to provide blocks of rooms for tournaments. “In addition, we establish appropriate discounts to assist the CVA in their efforts to bring the business to Northwest Indiana.”
