New Venues for your Next Sporting Event
Sports events mean big business and cities across the Midwest are taking steps to ensure they get a piece of the pie. From North Dakota to Indiana and everywhere in between, state-of-the-art mutli-purpose and sport-specific facilities are either already hosting events or plan to be in the next year.
Williston ARC
The implications of having a facility like the Williston Area Recreation Center (ARC), the largest parks district-owned rec center in the nation, in town are not lost on the Williston Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB).
"As our community expands and becomes unlike anything it has ever been before, this recreation center will create opportunities for Williston we haven't had in the past," commented Amy Krueger, Williston CVB Executive Director. "Our job is to bring visitors into town, which keeps our entrepreneurs and business community healthy. The Williston ARC is a huge attraction for our region."
The Williston ARC offers a venue that can host a myriad of amateur sports events. The fifty meter competition pool with bleacher seating is capable of hosting state meets, and a 200 meter competition track wraps around 4 basketball courts. Combined with the other courts in Williston, the community will be capable of hosting multiple tournaments and track meets, even in inclement weather.
For more information about the ARC, visit www.willistonparks.com/ARC.
Louisville Slugger Sports Complex
Louisville Slugger, the number one name in diamond sports and leader in baseball and softball for 130 years, announced a major partnership with a new state-of-the-art sports center planned for Peoria, IL. The facility, with 10 outdoor all-synthetic-turf youth baseball and softball fields plus a 125,000 sq. ft. dome offering year-round play, will be called Louisville Slugger Sports Complex.
"Our company has a long history of leaving its mark on baseball and softball," said Louisville Slugger's VP of Marketing, Kyle Schlegel. "Louisville Slugger is honored to join with the Peoria community in what will be one of the very best facilities of its kind in America…"
Louisville Slugger Sports Complex is expected to host more than 11,000 competitive games per year while entertaining nearly a quarter million people annually. The experience for players and families will include a big-league atmosphere with major-league walk-out-style dugouts, bullpens, lights, electronic scoreboards and public address systems. Opening ceremonies will be second to none, with a brilliant laser show and welcome video played on the ceiling of the dome.
The partnership agreement with developers provides Louisville Slugger with naming rights, use of the facility for special marketing events – such as showcases and product demonstrations – and product merchandising, among other things. The parties also plan to cooperate on development of a Louisville Slugger smartphone application to promote events and provide information to players and their families.
For more information about Louisville Slugger Sports Complex, visit www.slugger.com/press.
Robert W. Plaster Center
Pittsburg State University
Pittsburg, Kansas
Pittsburg State and community officials broke ground in February on the new, 154,000 sq. ft. Robert W. Plaster Center, a site that has already been selected to host the 2016 and 2018 NCAA Division II Indoor Track Championships.
Having a facility of this caliber, along with additional renovations at the adjacent Weede Physical Education Building, will position Pittsburg State not only for track events, but also for other regional sports tournaments once the center is complete in spring 2015.
"This (Indoor Track Championships) event will bring more than 1,000 competitors and support personnel from every corner of the U.S. to Pittsburg for three exciting days," said B.J. Harris, director of the Crawford County Convention and Visitors Bureau. "The economic impact will be significant, but just as important will be the national attention this will bring to the region."
Denny Sanford Premier Center
The Sioux Falls Events Center is a multipurpose facility that will house sporting events, concerts, conventions, banquets, etc.
The Events Center will add more than 64,000 sq. ft. to the already existing facilities it is being built adjacent to, the current Convention Center and the Arena. It will seat 12,000 for basketball, 10,450 for hockey, up to 13,000 for concerts, 5,750 for rodeos and 180 standard booths for a tradeshow. The four level facility consists of the event level, main concourse, suite level and upper concourse.
The Events Center is expected to be completed by Fall 2014. For more information, visit www.siouxfallseventscenter.org.
Unexpected situations at sports events and how they were resolved
The Chicago Southland CVB recently hosted the American Taekwondo Association Class "A" Tournament at the Ho-Chunk Sports Complex in Lynwood, Ill., with over 2,500 competitors and spectators. The facility has 1,200 parking spots which sounds like a lot, but ended up not being enough after snow covered the parking lines minutes before the event began.
With no lines and no parking attendants the situation quickly escalated, and our very own Sports Sales Manager Joel Koester sprung to action. With the event organizers and facility managers, Joel started rearranging and directing traffic. Within 45 minutes, the parking situation was resolved and traffic flow was restored.
Scott Bort
Chicago Southland Convention & Visitors Bureau
North Platte, NE hosted the ASA Girls 16-U Class A Fastpitch Northern Nationals in late July 2012. We planned for an ambulance to attend during games but didn't plan for them to be there during opening ceremony. Due to the extensive heat we had a player that experienced heat stroke during the opening ceremony. Access to the field for EMTs was not arranged prior to the event so we scrambled at the last minute. This became a potentially dangerous issue because vehicle entrance gates onto the field were padlocked. All was well as we knew who had keys and they were present but we noted that you plan for the worst at all times just not game time.
Lisa Burke
North Platte/Lincoln County Visitor's Bureau
Badger State Games
Director Of Meetings
Extreme Volleyball
Fishing Has No Boundaries Hayward
Independent Conference Planning
Independent Meeting Planning
Innovative Chefs
Meetings And Events Industry
Nix Conference & Meeting Management
Pheasants Forever
Quail Forever
Rachel Walsh
Sally Magallanes
Sara Rollin
Sentergroup
Special D Events
Sporting Event Venues
Sports Event Manager
Terry Matthews-Lombardo
Third-party Planner