4 minute read
Sports Tourism
Creating a Winning Partnership to Drive Sports Tourism
BY: Mike Wattigny, Marketing Director, FRESHJUNKIE Racing
with collaboration from: Anthony Terling, STS, CHSP, Sports and Event Development Manager, Auburn-Opelika Tourism Cat Bobo, Communications Manager, Auburn-Opelika Tourism
Want to create a dynamic event with meaningful, trackable economic impact? Want to build something unique that energizes participants that they tell all their friends about? Want to ensure your first-year event is a success?
The key? Strategic partnerships. In other words, building a team consisting of the event producer, the Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) or sports commission, and the host municipality/venue. That’s exactly what happened at the Inaugural War Eagle Run Fest in February when Auburn-Opelika Tourism teamed up with FRESHJUNKIE Racing to bring a new event to Auburn University.
Having worked with Tuscaloosa Tourism & Sports for many years, FRESHJUNKIE Racing was referred to AO Tourism to brainstorm and conceive a major running event that would attract visitors for a weekend of running and fandom. With great relationships in place at Auburn University and the city of Auburn, AO Tourism was able to facilitate the meetings necessary to gain approval for the Inaugural War Eagle Run Fest, a half marathon, 5k and kids race finishing on the 50-yard line of Jordan-Hare Stadium.
• 2,551 runners • 1,564 reported room nights • 37 states were represented + Canada & Germany • 41% of runners said they were traveling in from out of town (42.9% were from zip codes outside an 80-mile radius of Auburn-Opelika) – 1,365 hotel nights are attributed to participants traveling further than 80 miles from Auburn. – 199 hotel nights are attributed to participants within 80-miles of Auburn. • $494,000 - Direct Economic Impact (State/Local impact)
Key lessons when launching a new event to drive tourism:
Give yourself enough time – Conceiving, brand development, launching, marketing, and executing a new event takes a long time to do successfully. When looking at new events, we recommend a minimum of 16-20 months from the event date to properly plan for a successful endurance event. If you are an event producer looking to launch a new endurance event in a market, it takes time to find the right decision-makers with government agencies, host venues, etc. If you are a tourism, visitor, or sports commission it can take months to develop an RFP, meet/interview the event producers, and arrange meetings with appropriate government agencies. Everything takes more time than you think, and without giving yourself enough lead-time the event won’t live up to its true potential.
Decide upon ownership structure at the outset – Will the event be owned by the sports commission and produced by an event management company, or will the race be owned by the event management company and supported by the sports commission? Each have unique positives and negatives, but our preference is for each entity to do what it does best: what they do day in and day out. The event management company owns, operates, and produces the event, the sports tourism commission drives tourism, while they collaborate on marketing. Producing a running event is a unique skill set to execute at a high level. It’s the unknowns that can
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make a running event go sideways quickly, leading to negative reviews, bad press, and potential marketing and PR nightmares. One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned when working on launching new events was to not cut corners on staffing. Hiring the professionals who can think on their feet and solve problems as they happen is a priceless piece to a successful event.
Look for a track record of success – There are lots of event production companies,: some specialize in concerts, some in tournaments, and some in running events. Look for a company that has produced the type of event you want see in your community. Has the event production company organized a running event for multiple thousands of runners? Have they produced those events in their home market, or have they succeeded out-of-market? There is a big difference between putting on a successful race in your hometown where you know all of the local suppliers versus putting on major running event away from home. Look for a company who has proven they can meet your goals. Regardless of who owns the event, the race will represent your city. If you have goals of driving tourism you need to know the event organizer will exhibit professionalism every step of the way and can help you reach your goals. Look at their portfolio of work, where they had success, and what metrics were used to define the results.
The Inaugural War Eagle Run Fest was a tremendous success on all fronts due to the key partnerships. Runners loved the event, filling up social media with pictures of their 50-yard line finish in Jordan-Hare Stadium. The goal of driving tourism was exceeded with runners traveling from as far as California to Maine, resulting in over 1,500 room nights.
Remember, focus on your strategic partnerships! They are the key to a successful new event or breathing life into an old one.
