The Laker/Lutz News

Pat Ciaccio

Pasco looks to become sports tourism destination

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Pasco County is putting its sports and recreation offerings front and center, in a strategy aimed at boosting tourism.

Visit Pasco — the county’s tourism arm — is rebranding its slogan to “Florida’s Sports Coast.”

The announcement came at the second annual East Pasco Economic Development Summit.

Adam Thomas, who oversees Pasco’s tourism efforts, said the new moniker shows the county is “charging ahead to becoming that premier sports destination in Florida.”

“We’re in the memory-making business. We want to tell our story, especially with our sports assets and really get that message out there to really get that return on investment,” Thomas explained at the Nov. 2 event held at Pasco-Hernando State College’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch.

The second annual East Pasco Economic Development Summit focused on the county’s sports tourism efforts. Speakers pictured here are, from left: Gordie Zimmerman, Florida Hospital Center Ice general manager; Richard Blalock, RADD Sports chief executive officer; Pat Ciaccio, Saddlebrook Resort general manager; Jason Aughey, Tampa Bay Sports Commission senior director; and, Adam Thomas, Pasco County tourism director. (Kevin Weiss)

The brand launch and marketing campaign for “Florida’s Sports Coast” will begin in January, Thomas said.

Previous Pasco tourism promotions featured the slogans “It’s only natural” and “Open spaces, vibrant places” — referring to the county’s ecotourism offerings.

“The logo and name is just a logo and a name, but the strategy behind it is really going to create that sense of place and that sense of destination for Pasco County as the Florida sports coast,” Thomas explained.

The new branding coincides with a number of new multipurpose sports facilities that have opened or will open soon.

Florida Hospital Center Ice in Wesley Chapel, for instance, opened in early 2017 as the largest hockey complex in the southeastern United States.

It drew national attention this past year when it played host to the gold medal-winning 2018 U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team. It’s also the training grounds of other Olympians, such as French pair skaters Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres.

The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Complex is next in line become a major draw once it opens in late 2019.

The $44 million, 98,000-square-foot facility will feature eight basketball courts, 16 volleyball courts, a cheer and dance studio, a fitness center, and sports medicine and athletic training offerings.

The complex, which broke ground in June, also will be able to host other sporting events and recreational activities, such as martial arts, wrestling, gymnastics, curling, badminton, indoor soccer, and lacrosse and pickleball.

Other facilities on tap include the Sarah Vande Berg Tennis Center in Zephyrhills and the Christopher N. Chiles Aquatic Center in Land O’ Lakes.

Meanwhile, the Saddlebrook Resort in Wesley Chapel has been a world-renowned golf and tennis mainstay since the 1980s.

Beyond those offerings, Pasco’s various outdoor recreational features will also fall under the Florida’s Sports Coast branding, Thomas noted.

The county’s inshore and offshore fishing offerings, as well as its network of hiking, biking and walking trails, create what Thomas labeled as “742 square miles of destination.”

In addition to the branding announcement, the economic summit also featured a series of panel discussions with stakeholders on the economic impact and opportunities that lie within the sports tourism industry.

Jason Aughey, senior director for the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, praised the county’s ongoing sports tourism efforts.

“Pasco County, in and of itself, is growing exponentially and gaining quite a bit of attention throughout the sports tourism industry,” he said. “I think the sky is really the limit.

“I’d be extremely bullish on what’s going on here; things are only going to get better,” Aughey added, while underscoring the economic benefit of sports tourism on the whole — particularly in the youth and amateur arena.

“Sports is very recession-proof in the sense that parents aren’t going to put away their child’s experience and/or potential opportunity for future scholarships. Same thing with discretionary spending as it pertains to adult seniors as far as the overall experience. Regardless of what’s happening in the economy, sports is going to continue to pull through,” he said.

Richard Blalock, chief executive officer of RADD Sports, the company that will manage the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Complex, also is upbeat about the Pasco’s sports tourism initiatives.

“The county’s moving in an awesome direction with their rebranding and the resources that they’ve put in,” Blalock said.

He noted the county’s efforts to serve a broad range of mid-sized indoor and outdoor sporting events year-round will further a stronghold on sports tourism.

The economic impact is year-round, and is not seasonal in nature, Blalock said.

Other speakers at the summit included Gordie Zimmerman, Florida Hospital Center Ice general manager; Pat Ciaccio, Saddlebrook Resort general manager; Carolynn Smith, 7 Marketing PR chief executive officer; Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore; Pasco County Administrator Dan Biles;  Dr. Stanley Giannet, of Pasco-Hernando State College; and, Dr. Keiva Wiley, Pasco County Schools director of Career and Technical Education.

The event was jointly presented by the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce and Pasco-Hernando State College.

Revised November 15, 2018

No one hurt in Saddlebrook fire

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Quick actions by a student at Saddlebrook Preparatory School averted the potential loss of life, in the early morning hours of June 9.

About 2:30 a.m., the student smelled smoked and went searching for the source.

When he saw smoke, “he pulled the alarm. He started knocking on doors. His roommates went and knocked on doors. He called security, and security came down and they knocked on doors,” said Pat Ciaccio, general manager of Saddlebrook Resort Tampa, at 5700 Saddlebrook Way in Wesley Chapel.

It took 55 Pasco County Fire Rescue firefighters more than an hour-and-a-half to extinguish the blaze that broke out in the boys’ dormitory at Saddlebrook Preparatory School in the early morning hours of June 9. No one was injured, but the damage was extensive. (Courtesy of Pasco County Fire Rescue)
It took 55 Pasco County Fire Rescue firefighters more than an hour-and-a-half to extinguish the blaze that broke out in the boys’ dormitory at Saddlebrook Preparatory School in the early morning hours of June 9. No one was injured, but the damage was extensive.
(Courtesy of Pasco County Fire Rescue)

The resort has been home to an international school for aspiring professional tennis players and golfers since 1993. Ninety-six students, from 26 countries, attend the school, including 54 who board at the resort. While the school is for students from grade three through 12, it only boards eighth- through 12th-graders.

There were 28 students and two adults in the boys’ dormitory which caught fire, and everyone got out of the building without injury, Ciaccio said.

“We were able to get all of the students out actually, before there were flames. There was just smoke at the time,” Ciaccio said.

“From that point on, it turned into a three-alarm,” Ciaccio said.

Pasco County Fire Rescue Training Chief Shawn Whited said when the fire department crews arrived, “they had heavy fire through the roof of the building.

“As we were getting there, we realized there was a lot of fire there, so we called for a second- and third-alarm to help fight the fire,” Whited added. “The building was heavily damaged. The roof was burned off.”

It took 55 firefighters more than 1 ½ hours to put out the fire, and fire department investigators were still on the scene hours later, trying to determine the cause for the blaze, Whited said.

It turns out that the fire was started by a faulty bathroom exhaust fan/ bathroom heater mounted in the ceiling, Whited said.

No estimates were available on the extent of the loss, but Whited described the damage as extensive. “They’re going to have to gut the entire building,” he said.

On the afternoon after the fire, Ciaccio said, “Really, the extent of the damage — it’s too early — the adjusters aren’t even at the property yet.”

In the short term, the boarders from the boys’ dorm were relocated to the next courtyard.

“They’ll remain in there, those that stay for summer school, and then next school year, we’ll go back into there until Courtyard 11 is rebuilt,” Ciaccio said.

The general manager praised the students, resort staff and emergency rescue workers for their response.

The student who smelled the smoke “went into fire-drill mode,” Ciaccio said, explaining that the school and dormitories have monthly fire drills to know how to handle such emergencies.

“When your chief of security is calling you at 3 a.m., it’s not a good phone call. To arrive on property shortly after that and to have everything as buttoned down — you don’t ever want the tragedy to happen, but you feel good about the preparation,” he said.

“In an hour’s time, we had them (students) relocated to another courtyard, and they were in rooms, laying down,” he said.

He was particularly impressed by the way the students conducted themselves.

“They are in pressure situations all of the time on the tennis court, on the golf course. And, obviously that just extended into their personal lives, because they handled this situation so effortlessly.

“We were business as usual today. The kids were in class, taking exams,” Ciaccio said.

That is, except for the 28 who were in the dorm on the night of the fire. They were excused from exams.

Published June 15, 2016