As Pasco County stocks up on sports and recreation facilities, one local sports tourism expert envisions the growing area as a regional asset and an enticement for attracting more big-ticket sporting events to Tampa Bay.
Jason Aughey, senior director at the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, was the featured guest speaker on March 22 at an economic development briefing hosted by the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce at Hunter’s Green Golf & Country Club.
While much of the talk focused on the Tampa Bay region as a whole, Aughey touched on Pasco County’s current impact and potential as a sports destination.
“The future is extremely bright,” said Aughey, who is bullish on the county’s renewed focus on sports tourism.
He specifically mentioned the “world-class” Florida Hospital Center Ice in Wesley Chapel, which opened in early 2017 as the largest hockey complex in the southeastern United States.
“People come here and see that — they’re blown away,” Aughey said.
He said another feather in the county’s cap is the construction of a $44 million, 98,000-square-foot, multi-use indoor sports complex being built in the Wiregrass area.
The Wiregrass sports complex — set to open by spring 2019— could be used as an ancillary site for large indoor volleyball tournaments, such as the Gasparilla Volleyball Kickoff Classic, which are currently hosted at the Tampa Convention Center.
The Wiregrass facility, developed by RAAD Sports LLC, also can host basketball, soccer, lacrosse and cheerleading events, among others.
The speaker lauded existing centers, including Saddlebrook Resort — which hosted the Fed Cup Tennis Semifinals last April. And, he noted the Wesley Chapel District Park and the Land O’ Lakes Recreation Complex, which provide ball fields for youth and amateur sports.
Having those places to play at is the first step in in driving a thriving sports tourism market, Aughey said.
The community’s location is another advantage because of the relative ease of navigating from Central Pasco and East Pasco, to downtown Tampa and Tampa International Airport.
Aughey observed: “While there’s that line that truly does delineate Hillsborough and Pasco County, we see it as nonexistent. When we’re dealing with event organizers and say, ‘Hey, our airport is less than 30 minutes from Wesley Chapel or Land O’ Lakes,’ it’s an attention-getter.”
The Tampa Bay Sports Commission (TBSC) is a private, nonprofit, 501c3, charitable corporation that serves the entire Tampa Bay area as the lead organization for bidding on and hosting premier sports, and entertainment events.
Aughey said the organization’s partnership with Pasco has evolved significantly during the past decade and has to grow with the county’s new tourism director, Adam Thomas, a former professional baseball player who’s expressed a heavier interest in drawing more sporting events.
Aughey stressed the big business of sports in his presentation, noting the Tampa Convention & Visitors Bureau estimates over a third of the region’s visitor nights are sports-related.
It not only extends to Super Bowls and national championships, but the youth and amateur realm, too.
Aughey explained: “If you think about it, sports really is recession-proof. People aren’t going to cut their child’s opportunity to participate, or potentially with their future if they’re eligible for a scholarship. And, discretionary income, in terms of people going to different sporting events, it’s not going to disappear.”
Big-ticket regional events yield significant economic impact by generating thousands of hotel room nights in a short period, he added.
For instance, the 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship at Raymond James Stadium yielded more than 60,000 hotel visitor nights.
Pasco recorded its highest-ever daily hotel room revenue on game night, the second Monday in January, Aughey noted. And, on the three days leading up to the game, the county’s average daily hotel rate increased 25 percent, 60 percent and 57 percent, and the average revenue per available hotel room increased 54 percent, 136 percent and 118 percent compared to same days in previous years.
The national championship game fostered a sense of pride with the Tampa Bay community, and its success helped Tampa secure its fifth Super Bowl bid, for February 2021, he said.
Tampa Bay regional sporting events on tap through 2022:
- 2018 NCAA Division II Women’s Lacrosse Championship
- 2018 NCAA Division I Track & Field
- 2019 NCAA Women’s Final Four
- 2020 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball First and Second Rounds
- 2021 NFL Super Bowl LV
- 2021 NCAA Division II Men’s & Women’s Cross Country Championships
- 2021 NCAA Division II Men’s & Women’s Soccer Championships
- 2021 NCAA Division II Women’s Volleyball Championships
- 2022 Southeastern Conference Basketball Tournament
Published April 4, 2018
