Seminole County is about to enter the big leagues of youth sports — joining a multibillion-dollar industry that caters to a growing army of families who travel across the country to watch their kids compete in sports tournaments.
The county’s planned $27-million sports mega-complex will include a baseball stadium and fields for soccer, lacrosse, football and softball. When completed in 2016, supporters hope, the 102-acre complex off East Lake Mary Boulevard will draw thousands of visitors from across the country to watch and play in tournaments, filling area hotels and restaurants and generating millions of dollars for the local economy.
Seminole is among city and county governments across the United States that are banking on sports complexes as a way to cash in on traveling youth sports leagues.
Families spent an estimated $7.68 billion traveling with their children to youth-sports tournaments around the country in 2011, according to the latest figures compiled by the National Association of Sports Commissions, an Ohio-based group that represents tournament organizers and facilities.
Youth sports travel has become one of the fastest-growing segments in the travel industry, said David Hollander, an assistant professor of sports management at New York University‘s Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management.
“It’s huge,” Hollander said. That’s because families are eager to take their athletic children to prestigious tournaments far from home and use the trips as vacations.
And governments are seeing new sports complexes as a way to bring in those tournaments. In other words, the wager is, if you build it, they will come.
For Seminole County, which sits in the shadow of Disney World and other large theme parks, it’s a chance to grab a small piece of the tourism market, Hollander said.
According to a Seminole County study, one tournament at the planned complex could draw about 1,900 people. Seventeen events in the first year would generate about $19 million for the local economy and add more than a dozen jobs, according to the report.
Within five years and additional tournaments, the benefit to the local economy would rise to $25 million, county officials said. The figure represents spending by visitors at nearby hotels and restaurants, retail stores and other businesses.
Seminole would have some competition, too. In North Florida, Jefferson County commissioners heard plans this month to build a multipurpose sports facility near Interstate 10 and State Road 59 interchange in Lloyd, about a half-hour’s drive from Tallahassee.
The proposed facility, called Project Game Changer, would include 12 to 14 fields to be used year-round for baseball, softball, soccer and lacrosse.
Apopka started building its Northwest Recreation Complex just north of Ponkan Road in 2000, primarily as a sports facility for its residents to use.
Today it features 12 diamonds — six for baseball and six for softball — tennis courts, volleyball courts and 14 fields for soccer, lacrosse and football.
But over the years, the Apopka complex has drawn large regional tournaments with young athletes coming in from across the United States.
Last month, it was the site of a three-day Little League tournament that drew 160 young athletes and nearly 1,000 people from eight Southeastern states — Florida, West Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia and South Carolina.
“You have to think they were here for three days and during those three days they were doing a lot of things in Apopka; they were shopping, they were going to restaurants,” said Greg Phillips, a board member of the Apopka Little League.
Richard Anderson, Apopka’s chief administrative officer, said the primary purpose of his city’s recreational complex is for the local community. So it’s important that large tournaments don’t shut out local residents wanting to use the fields to kick or throw around a ball.
“The good part of having all those tournaments is that when you get all the out-of-towners, it helps the restaurants. It helps our shops,” Anderson said.
Even private developers have caught on to the youth-sports movement.
Disney spent more than $100 million to turn 220 acres in Osceola County into a sports complex.
The park, now named ESPN Wide World of Sports, includes a 9,500-seat baseball stadium with luxury skyboxes, 17 multi-use fields, a 5,000-seat indoor space, a tennis complex, eateries and a gift shop.
When Seminole’s complex is completed it will feature 15 lighted athletic fields with synthetic turf that can be configured for baseball, softball, soccer, football and lacrosse. The complex, according to plans, will also include a pavilion, walking paths, playground and an area for food trucks.
The county will use a mix of revenues, including tourist taxes, to pay for bonds to build the complex.
Joe Abel, Seminole’s leisure-services director, said local residents also will be allowed to use the facility.
“We certainly can use more multipurpose fields not just for our residents but also for tournaments,” Abel said. “But it’s also an opportunity to bring tournaments that will benefit our community.”