August 2018

Industry Shorts

Brad Dean, the previous CVB head of Myrtle Beach, has taken a new position as the head of tourism re-development in Puerto Rico. As he leads the recovery for the island, Brad has reached out to NASC for support on sports initiatives to assist that recovery. We will be spending some time with Brad and his team in support of his efforts in the coming months.
 

News from the Clubhouse

We welcome back Elizabeth Young from maternity leave to our team of five full time employees and four discipline specific independent contractors. Elizabeth will oversee the tactical implementation of many of our new strategic initiatives aimed at increased stakeholder value. We have aligned our team into specific areas of direct responsibility providing solid coverage for stakeholder services, sponsorship acquisition and activation, marketing, member services, industry partnerships as well as new program implementation.
 

On the Road

I recently had the privilege of presenting NASC 2.0 to the Myrtle Beach Sports, CVB and Chamber teams. Jonathon Paris served as the gracious host and provided tours of local facilities. I had the opportunity to meet with local government officials as well as the staff at Park & Rec who do an outstanding job maintaining the balance of facility use between ROI and ROM opportunities. We spent several hours discussing potential ways of building additional event inventory for the market. The next day began with a discussion with the Alliance members on NASC 2.0 and the number of new initiatives recently approved by our board. Lindsay Burns hosted a group of 24 statewide sports events and tourism professionals for a planning meeting and discussed a coordinated statewide marketing initiative. Scott Powers from Columbia was asked and agreed to become a member of the branding team as we continue down the path to rebrand our organization to compliment the NASC 2.0 work. All around it was an excellent two days of serving our stakeholders.
 

Additional upcoming meetings include:

• Stakeholder meetings with the Philadelphia CVB and Sports Authority slated for September 5. 
• Las Vegas meetings with the team working on a statewide initiative for the Governor of Nevada. 
• Brainstorming sessions with Daniel Rush of MGM to discuss a potential event for his facility in mid-2019. 
• Biloxi to speak to their CVB and regional teams. 
• Upcoming NASC events include Chief Executive Summit and 4S.

A very busy time of the year.

Front Office Musings

Risk management continues to grow in importance for our rights holders as well as facility operators. This ever-increasing part of our business takes on additional importance as facility development and utilization across America continues at such a high pace. Based on this continued growth, risk management safety programs and protocols are a must for every aspect of sports events and tourism. Management must be committed to safety and have a constant vigil on identifying hazards and correction, education and training of staff and budgeting for deferred maintenance.

Now comes the consideration for sports events insurance for active shooters, terrorism and civil unrest. Organizations must consider adding the appropriate insurance for this protection. Sports tournaments with large participation rates may be considered targets for unscrupulous activity. According to the FBI, these types of occurrences have steadily increased each year. The Sports Facilities and the Law August publication lists these types of common insurance policies that may come into play after a mass violence or disruption incident; Worker’s Comp., General Liability, Excess Liability, Property and business interruption, Cyber Risk, Event Cancellation and Active Shooter.
 

Industry Partnership Update

We have signed an agreement with Destinations International to partner with them on the use and expansion of an industry Economic Impact Calculator developed by Tourism Economics. There are seven (7) sports modules included and we will be continuing to develop new support tools. In addition, the International Association of Venue Managers will be using a product developed by the team at Tourism Economics that will tie in sports activities in venues to further add resource tools for sports events and tourism stakeholders. We will begin the marketing and implementation in the coming weeks. This is a significant step forward in working towards an industry standard presentation of economic data and reporting that will create an apple to apples evaluation module across all markets. I am particularly impressed with the extensive local market data embedded in the program to create a “local custom” feel and reporting accuracies. This is the first of a set of support tools that we are exploring to add value and accurate reporting to our stakeholders.
 

Membership Updates

We would like to thank all the organizations who have joined our growing list of stakeholders since January 2018. Thank you for the privilege of serving you! Below is a listing of our newest stakeholders.
 

Destinations

• Big Bear Visitors Bureau
• Campbell County Chamber of Commerce
• Central Virginia Sports
• Chicago Sports Commission
• City of Broken Arrow CVB
• City of Bryan Parks & Recreation
• City of Gulfport - Department of Leisure Services
• City of Kent Parks, Recreation and Community Services
• DeSoto County Tourism Association
• Discover Klamath
• Disney Sports Attractions
• Go Gaston
• Greater Merrimack Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Huron Chamber & Visitors Bureau
• Las Vegas Events
• Livingston County Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Norfolk Area Sports Council
• Rocky Mount Event Center
• Shakopee Chamber & Visitors Bureau
• Sports Nebraska
• Talbot County Office of Tourism/ TEAM Maryland
• Twin Cities Sports Commission
• Visit Allen Texas
• Visit Enid
• Visit Simi Valley
• Visit Wichita
• Washington County Tourism Promotion Agency 
   

Event and Rights Holder

• 129 Sports LLC
• Adrenaline Sports Management Inc.
• American Junior Golf Association
• Cool Events LLC
• FIRST INSPIRATION AND RECOGNITION OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
• Floorball Academy Plus Inc.
• International Extreme Archery Federation
• Krieger & Company
• Legacy Global Sports Football Division
• Legends Sports
• National Barrel Horse Association
• National Collegiate Boxing Association
• National Flag Football
• Pond Hockey Classic
• Powerhouse Youth Sports Management, LLC
• RISE
• Sirenia BVC LLC
• State Basketball Championship
• U.S. Soccer Development Academy
• USA Dodgeball
• USA South Athletic Conference
• USA Synchro
• Virginia Amateur Sports
• Youth Basketball of America
   

Industry

• ALSD - Sports Venue Design & Build Forum
• aRes Travel
• Destinations International
• From Now On
• La Quinta Inn & Suites
• Lockton Companies LLP
• Peckham Guyton Albers & Viets, Inc.
• Rising Star Sports Ranch Resort
• Stay, Play, Made Simple LLC
• Team Travel Source
• The National Sports Forum
• Venues Unlimited
   

From the Stat Department

• US Hotel Occupancy is the highest it has been in the last 30 years with Q1 Occupancy increased 61.1% YOY
• Experts tie the growth to increased employment and consumer spending
• 200,000 limited service rooms in 993 hotels were constructed for the year ending (12-month period) in March 2018
• 407,000 additional rooms will be on the books in the next 12 months

THINK BIG! 

Al Kidd
President & CEO
National Association of Sports Commissions