Letter from the Incoming Chair

Roughly 16 years ago, I embarked on a career in the sport tourism industry, knowing absolutely nothing about tourism. In my final interview for the position, I naively told the person making the final hiring decision that they should do a better job of marketing, because up until me going through this process I had no idea what a CVB or sports commission was, let alone how vital tourism Mike Price is to a community. Despite that horribly timed comment, I was somehow offered the opportunity to grow the sport tourism market in Greater Lansing, MI.

That story underscores my initial lack of knowledge and why Sports ETA is so important to me. Like many across our industry, I have taken from the association and my peers more than I could ever return. Sports ETA continues to evolve and provide the resources needed to support the sports events and tourism industry.

Investment in membership is the sole focus of our Sports ETA staff and all those that volunteer their valuable time to help advance our industry. With a solid foundation established we move toward establishing resources and assets in each of our four pillars: Education, Advocacy, Resources, and Networking (EARN).

The April Education Blitz offered earlier this month showcases our investment in Education, launching our own Learning Management Software through our Sport Tourism Learning Institute (STLI). This new approach ensures a consistent track of education as members progress through their career. You will be able to concentrate on items that are most important to you and your area of expertise and responsibility. And the courses will be tailored to all levels of membership and experience levels. Work is underway in the Advocacy pillar that will better support our membership with critical matters around legislation and ensure our residents and elected officials understand the value of what you do. Sports ETA will be better equipped to advocate on behalf of our industry and keep members abreast of developments that could impact their communities.

Development in the Resource pillar includes the expansion of industry specific studies, research, analysis, industry standards and trends that will provide much needed insight and structure to our rapidly evolving industry.

The evolution to a member community-based approach has helped shape the Networking pillar and creates groupings with shared commonality. We will further develop our established networking events and are already working on new outlets to provide connectivity across all membership.

We will further develop our established networking events and are already working on new outlets to provide connectivity across all membership.

Investment in membership is the sole focus of our Sports ETA staff and all those that volunteer “ their valuable time to help advance our industry. With a solid foundation established we move toward establishing resources and assets in each of our four pillars: Education, Advocacy, Resources, and Networking (EARN).

Sports ETA continues to evolve to best support our expanding membership base. The most important thing our membership can do is find a way to invest. Invest your time to volunteer, invest your ideas on how we can grow the industry, invest your talents to help us identify new opportunities, invest your time to help others in the industry. Your investment will lead to immeasurable return that supports all our efforts to grow the sports events and tourism industry.

Yours in sport,

Mike Price, STS, CTA Executive Director, Greater Lansing Sports Authority Incoming Chair, Sports ETA