Sports

Praise & Gratitude

“I want to thank you on how great Abilene takes care for the state meet, we look forward to many more years there. Thank you for taking care of me and my guys, you are great. God bless.” Kirk Stroud Powerlifting State Tournament 2019

“We liked Abilene for a lot of reasons. It’s the perfect size to host the tourney. Commuting around town is not an issue and you don’t have to plan around traffic. Chance of a rain out is minimal. Abilene has plenty of nice facilities including nice university and country club settings. The tourney has been run smoothly and stayed on schedule. It’s a fairly neutral distance from Houston, SA, and Dallas. People in Abilene are friendly and we have received great service at Hotels and Restaurants while staying in Abilene.” Travis Radtke, Friendswood, Texas USTA-Texas Slam

Meeting & Event Planners: Sports

Abilene’s central location and hotel inventory is ideal for the sports market. Abilene enjoys a strong reputation for customer service and collaboration. The Dodge Jones Youth Sports Center opened in February of 2020, and the ACVB will target events to utilize this state-of-the-art facility. v

Objectives:

Increase sports bookings by 5%. Maintain and enrich relationships with hotel staff and owners. Increase economic impact for sports by $1 million. Create fundraiser for the Abilene Sports Alliance to generate $10,000 in revenue. Solicit events eligible for the Texas Event Fund.

Strategies:

Update the sports pages on website to make it more engaging. Target customers for a direct mail promotion for the Dodge Jones Youth Sports Center. Establish quarterly meetings with hoteliers. Create a new video to promote the Dodge Jones Youth Sports Center. Develop an attractive, easy-to-use digital sports bid. Attend Trade Shows: Sports ETA is the primary network for communication and networking for the sports events and tourism industry. Sports ETA is comprised of members who attract sporting events to their communities, such as sports commissions, destination marketing organizations (DMOs), parks and recreation, event owners, and vendors who serve the sports events and tourism industry.