Scotts Bluff County’s Tourism stakeholders Tuesday learned where the area stands in comparison to similar markets in the Midwest region when it comes to attracting more sports-related tourism, with both strengths and weaknesses identified.
Huddle Up Group CEO Jon Schmieder said the local sports tourism index was just under 33, less than eight points under the average for Midwest destinations, out of a scale reaching 100. He noted put of the more than 350 destinations across the country his organization has scored regarding sports tourism, none has scored higher than a 76, meaning the local score is quite respectable given the size of the market.
Strengths in the four-part index included existing outdoor facilities, especially because of area golf courses, as well as the current state of the organizational structure. One area with a low score was destination strength, which Schmieder said has a lot to do with proximity to a larger transportation hub. He said short of additional scheduled flights into and out of the West Nebraska Regional Airport, it was a subject largely outside the control of local tourism stakeholders, and so their focus needed to be on the other three components.
Schmieder told the group Huddle Up’s immediate recommendations include creation of a non-profit regional sports commission with a Director, and stakeholders on the board ‘locking arms’ toward some common goals.
“If you create a separate 501c3 (non-profit), with the two cities, the County, the the college, corporate and youth sports organizations, can all plug in to a common cause. Right now, they’re all kind of operating in silos, so that’s the first piece,” Schmieder said. In addition, area stakeholders needed to continue promoting the benefits of sports tourism to the public, a message that has had a lot of visibility of late with the announcement of the USA Cycling Gravel National Championships coming to the area this summer and next. The founding board would be anticipated to contribute the funds to ‘boot-strap’ the initial efforts.
Longer-term goals include a regional facility master plan, and meeting the relative lack of a large indoor venue with new multi-purpose facility with four to six courts. As part of that effort, HuddleUp recommended seeking a permanent funding source that could address facility and marketing costs, potentially through something along the lines of a tourism improvement district.
He said one thing everyone needed to understand, and promote in the future, is that a new indoor sporting complex would serve more than sports tourism, it would also impact the local community. When not in use for tournaments or special events , it would give local athletes a place to practice their skills, instead of perhaps needing to travel to find facilities appropriate to their needs.
Schmieder said instead of trying to go up against much bigger markets for larger events in the short-term, an intermediate-term key will be creating more home-grown sporting attractions, and he cited the Monument Marathon as an example.
