Cities compete to host sporting events

Officials in small American cities have discovered they do not have to be a Detroit, site of the 2006 Super Bowl, or a Salt Lake City, scene of the 2002 Winter Olympics, to attract sporting events. With well-run venues, and support from local businesses and residents, small-to-mid-size cities can attract thousands of visitors and pump millions of dollars into the local economy.

This month, Lowell, Mass., a former mill city with 125,000 residents, will welcome the World Men’s Curling Championships, a week-long competition, attracting visitors from Europe, Japan, Canada and the United States. Visitors will pack restaurants and hotels, shop local stores and visit museums, spending an estimated $5.1 million.

In mid-March, Salem, Va., a city of 20,000 residents, was the scene of board-pounding college basketball, when the NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Championships attracted 3,400 fans to the Salem Civic Center, part of an expansive sports complex with a 7,500-seat football stadium and a 6,300-seat baseball park designed to host Division III national football, softball, baseball and volleyball championships.

In mid-July, the En-Joie Golf Course in Endicott, N.Y., a village that is part of 200,000-resident Binghamton, will host the BC Open, a part of the Professional Golfers’ Association of America Tour, a tradition since 1971. With a purse of $3.5 million, it is a smaller stop on the tour. Yet, by all accounts, it is also one of the friendliest, giving more than $8 million to local charities over the years.

A well-run venue is crucial, officials say. In its nine-year history, Lowell’s Tsongas Arena, which is owned by the city and managed by Philadelphia-based SMG, has gained a reputation for successfully staging sporting events, hosting national synchronized skating championships and world cup tennis. The arena is home to semi-professional and college hockey teams. “We have a wonderful venue, and one of our goals is to bring major events here,” says Deborah Belanger, director of Lowell-based Merrimack Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau.

In NCAA sports, the Salem Civic Center is well-known. “It started with the Stagg Bowl, the national championship for Division III football,” says Carey Harveycutter, director of the city-owned center since 1968. “It was a rousing success and led to an agreement with the NCAA to host Division III softball, [which] led to basketball, baseball and volleyball. Word got around that we knew how to run these events, and it just sort of snowballed.”

Attracting sporting events involves cooperation and teamwork, and months or years of planning. In Lowell, pursuit of the curling championships began six years ago with talks between city officials and curling organizers, Belanger says.

The partnership plunged full-speed ahead in 2002, when the World Curling Federation awarded Lowell the 2006 championships. Today, the city is ready for the influx of visitors who will purchase 45,000 seats during the competitions, boosting the economy. “It will be fabulous,” says City Manager John Cox. “Here we are, the city of Lowell hosting a real world event, an Olympic sporting event at Tsongas Arena. It’s been an unbelievable journey, but well worth it.”

Officials say resident participation, either through volunteering or attending the events, helps ensure success. “It’s important to create a strong local base, even for events for which the community has no direct connection,” Harveycutter says. “For football and basketball, we sell 1,500 to 2,000 seats locally. The competition is good, and local people enjoy it.”

Hosting spectator sporting events can be economically profitable for smaller cities, and Salem experienced a big economic boost in March, Harveycutter says. “The championships bring in $4 [million] to $6 million a year in tourism dollars for the local economy,” he says. “And it’s clean money. They come in, spend it, leave, and you don’t have to educate their kids.”

The same is true for Endicott, says Alex De Persis, president of the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce. “There are 75,000 to 80,000 [people] at the golf course, and we estimate they add $4 [million] to $5 million to the economy each July,” he says. Those numbers make city officials and residents feel good about playing host to smaller, yet no less impressive, sporting events.
— Nancye Tuttle is a Lowell, Mass.-based freelance writer.