Economic Outlook | Youth Sports: Driving Tourism in Michiana

hi I'm Jeff Ray your host for economic Outlook Welcome to our show we're back in the studio today for another great show we hope you'll make plans each week to join us as we discuss the Region's most important Economic Development initiatives with a panel of experts the 15 billion dollar Youth Sports travel industry is impacting communities across the country and our region is winning big on that travel with youth sports being the fastest growing sector of visitors coming to the region we'll take a closer look at the impact of those Travelers coming up on economic Outlook [Music] according to the sports events and tourism Association there was 39.7 billion dollars in amateur and youth sports tourism direct spending in 2021 generating a total economic impact of more than 91 billion our region played a critical role in those numbers and has become a popular destination for youth sports events joining me today to take a closer look at the impact Youth Sports on tourism in our area are Jeff jarnecki the executive director of visit South of Mishawaka and Mike McNeil the programming and instruction manager at the Compton family Ice Arena and Notre Dame athletics guys thanks for joining me this morning great so we're going to talk sports tourism just first before we start though Jeff talk a little bit about so your job so people I'm familiar with visits happen Mishawaka what do you do yeah we're part of the South Bend Regional Chamber a division within that organization and it's our job then to Market all the amenities the attractions the hotels within St Joseph County so we work with our partners in the city of South Bend the City of Mishawaka to New Carlisle down to Lakeville and throughout to not only bring visitors here from a Leisure perspective but attract business in the forms of conventions meetings events and youth sports is part of it and so six person staff is dedicated to working with our partners and the other attractions within the area to attract that business day in and day out great and Mike let's come your way for a second so talk a little about your role what you're doing at Notre Dame and at the Compton family Ice Arena sure thank you programming and instruction manager so really I scheduled the facility anything that is going to be on the ice on either one of our our two ranks would kind of come through our office and then the second component is our staff also gets to get on the ice with our local high school players with our local youth hockey players and provide additional instruction great so Mike I'm going to stay with you for a second so you grew up in the area for the most part and and participated in sports as a as a youngster talk a little bit about the maybe the Youth Sports environment here locally and what you as a family or whatever had to do my guess is you did a little bit of traveling on your own as well for in the Esports space for sure yeah very very lucky uh kind of move to the area I was two and a half years old my dad came to be an assistant hockey coach so I played a lot of baseball played a lot of hockey played a lot of football growing up and it was a huge part whether it was in grade school certainly went to St Joe High School played all three Sports and still in my mind encourage young athletes to participate in multiple Sports get to work with and get to know a different group of friends different coaches and I certainly think there's value in playing different sports and kind of having an off season I guess I would say but yeah I mean it was a big part of my life I grew up had four sisters and a brother so I'm a very active sport family and yeah every once in a while we would be able to travel so that was great great sounds good Jeff let's come back your wins and so we tease a little bit sort of big numbers in Youth Sports everything I read and hear about its impact just talk about maybe generally the the state of Youth Sports uh um in our area and its impact on tourism tell us how we're doing in that space yeah the short of it is Youth Sports in St Joseph County WIN and they win big they've propelled us and really helped buoy us through a pandemic they've done the same during a recession and the facilities that we have within St Joseph County work really well in terms of not only our geography and the ability to attract team teams out of Chicago out of Detroit out of Indianapolis it's almost that Central meeting point but then once they're here it's affordable to stay it's affordable to shop it's affordable to eat and so we see that year in and year out and so whether it's ice hockey and working with the partners at Notre Dame and in Compton Family Ice Arena to the ice box to the proposed Mishawaka Field House Youth Sports is a significant contributor of room nights and economic impact each and every year within St Joseph County so Jeff let me stay with you for a second because because I think we um we think of of Youth Sports or so talk a little about the maybe the variety of Youth Sports obviously I think hockey is probably the the big driver but what are some of the others that that come to our area right now yeah and it's not even specific to hockey although that might be the winner that we have here so we utilize and work with our partners down at Newton Park in Lakeville who host soccer and football and baseball and softball in quidditch is one of the newer sports that and although it has a new name they go by I think more will recognize quidditch but uh lacrosse rugby so many others that come through we're working on broomball is a future event that might come here and then even this summer outside of the more traditional field of play we're hosting the international jugglers Association as well in the aylp in terms of the Baton group that comes to town each and every year as well and so no shortage of sports no shortage of those that are willing to travel but perhaps where we do have the shortage and the opportunity before us within the county are those additional facilities to either add or to our capacity and our ability to host those events or maybe an absence of the facility altogether that might bring a different book of business to the the county in a different experience as well great am I kind of come back to your your role is is really two hats right so being on campus you've got a top-ranked hockey program at the University of Notre Dame year in and you're out and but you also are hosting tournament action so so talk a little bit about maybe the balancing those things that kind of the needs of the university and its students but also the the needs of the community there too well uh thankfully we start with a fantastic facility uh two sheets of ice and we basically we work directly in first with Notre Dame hockey and we make sure that all their practices all their games are are properly scheduled and then after that we work with local youth hockey High School hockey and then certainly our students on campus and then that final piece is working with the tournament providers who for example this weekend we have 18 10U teams coming in starting tomorrow morning at eight o'clock and and then that's kind of the way we balance out our facility we work with a couple different tournament providers we've had very success with them since day one when our facility opened in 2011. and you know looking into next season our schedule looks very solid with a bunch of tournaments as well and maybe just um numbers so how many weekends a year are there people here playing in a hockey tournament so I was looking into our next year um you know out of what's called 36 possible weekends where we could have tournaments because you we don't do week tournaments on weekends of Notre Dame football holidays so 36 total weekends 28 of those right now we have tournaments wow and then six of the ones that are left are kind of in July and August which typically is not a real strong tournament time I will say we are looking at some more summer activities we are looking at what can we do on a concrete floor when we have ice out in one of our facilities but um yeah I mean we're really excited how it's looking next year we kind of slowly have brought a couple new tournament users in and we've had very good success with them great Jeff let's talk some nuts and bolts just about even the you know so what Mike's talking about with these the number of tournaments that are hosting there again you you talk about you know fill in hotel rooms and having folks that you want them to eat and eat in our restaurants and stay in our hotels and stuff so talk a little about the the number of hotel rooms you need to fill what things like hockey tournaments are doing to help drive that traffic within St Joseph County 54 hotels which represent about 5 300 hotel rooms and so we work to fill those but the unique part especially in terms of the level and the extent of it are those private residences that are available for rent on a given weekend through VRBO or Airbnb or whatever the outlet may be and so there's just an incredible amount of inventory that we're working to film each and every weekend and through Sports in a given year Year we're able to book more than 85 events the majority of those end up being released through the room night side of it ended up being hockey related so those are about 34 000 room nights in a given year are coming from hockey and then another six to eight thousand are coming through other sports along the way and so that impact total is about 21 22 million dollars that are generated on a given year through sporting events and so that impact the ability the opportunity around that is just incredible so as we look at that on a national scene this is all just regionally based right now so you bring in a Mishawaka field house that will open next year you bring in additional sheets of ice you have whether it's pickleball or additional tennis courts or additional soccer fields those opportunities pay dividends because the number of kids which is estimated to be about 60 percent of the population of Ages 6 to 17 play sports of some doesn't mean that they necessarily travel doesn't mean they're playing at the highest level doesn't mean that they're not necessarily going to go to college but are playing Youth Sports and so that market that ability of something that's almost recession-proof that's almost pandemic proof that unfortunately have learned both along the way but it's a resilient Market it's one that's a ripe of opportunity and is continued to pay dividends for our County come your way so so the Allure of Campus you know for example it's a bucket list kind of item for so many people um so my guess is there's a little bit of you have a world-class facility that we want to use but we also want a chance to plug into campus talk about how how you balance sort of that campus interaction as well what yeah and it does it starts with the facility but then it also includes having the ice box which is 10 minutes away so four sheets of ice within 10 minutes I think then it includes your hotel Partners who you know the last 11 years we've been doing this it's just a it's a really good solid relationship and I think we've done a much better job kind of handling let's say the hockey families and finding ways to make their stays at hotels even that much better so then when they do get on campus yes uh are there tours this weekend you know can we direct them to the X Center how about going and having a meal at a dining hall certain times earlier in the season there's Football Stadium tours available which were hugely successful this past year so we kind of other activities other sports so like the kids coming in this weekend they know there's a basketball game on Saturday at 12 and I think it's against Louisville that kind of thing so while they're here yes they're going to play x amount of hockey games but here are other activities here are other things to do either on campus or in our city great guys we're going to take a quick break here in the studio we're going out into the field George life and Yodas my co-host is out at the Compton family Ice Arena talking a little bit more about Youth Sports and tourism George let me toss it to you thanks Jeff I'm on campus here at Notre Dame at the Compton family Ice Arena I'm joined by Nick Cleaver director of sports for visit South Bend Mishawaka that's correct did I get that right that's correct director of Sports Development yes Nick thanks for being with us today yeah thanks for having me in addition to being the director of Sports Development for South visit South Bend Mishawaka and that's a that's a branch of our local Chamber of Commerce but we'll get into that in a second you are familiar with this facility aren't you very familiar I grew up coming to Notre Dame hockey games I was unfortunate I didn't have a chance to play in this facility but I saw it being built and I was actually fortunate enough to work in here for a couple years before starting with visit Southbend so before you started there what was your position here so I was the uh programming instruction intern so I worked with the local youth leagues and I also helped manage The Adult Hockey League and the crewing league here as well as some community outreach with the schools and inviting those schools to come here so so as we say the things that this facility is used for hockey curling I believe ice skate dating as well it really was designed unlike some of the facilities here at Notre Dame with an eye on the community wasn't it that's correct yeah they really when they were looking at building this facility they wanted to have Community involvement so they built this community first they wanted to welcome all the teams all the local players here that attract these National tournaments so first and foremost it's not even hockey but then right behind it it's it's the community and it's it's very unique because it's only one of the facilities on campus that welcomes the youth teams here to practice on the weekdays and have tournaments and games during the weekend so it Youth Sports is in here quite often so it'd be almost akin to you know peewee football playing at the stadium on a Thursday practice correct um kind of a big deal it's huge yeah and every time you know a kid you know six seven eight years old who steps on this ice you just see their eyes light up because it's maybe the first time that they see this and they are very fortunate to be able to have a facility like this that they can learn to play hockey on right and you know for the viewers that can see it behind us or for many of our viewers in this area who've been to hockey games or or Youth Sports here um you know it's dressed and it's Irish proud Irish colors so I'm sure that adds an element oh absolutely now in your current job your job is to attract youth sports events and tournaments to the area tell us a little bit about Youth Sports I'm I'm a dad I've got young kids and I know that that's a deep deep Rabbit Hole yes I mean we are very fortunate with the facilities and everything that we do here locally with youth sports I mean it's a wide range of sports ranging from your hockey to your baseball uh to soccer lacrosse I mean we even do some cornhole and quad ball and some of the more unique Sports That You Don't See often so our resume is very wide and we like to offer and welcome all this different sports here locally so in addition to the Compton facility as you're trying to attract tournaments on behalf of the chamber and help Drive uh you know and when we think about the economic impact of those events it really is more than just kids and hot dogs there's a lot of money being spent absolutely yeah I mean first and foremost when you're talking with an event holder you're we're talking about facilities we're talking about the restaurants we're talking about the attractions everything that those users are going to experience when they're in town that we are looking for the best facilities and we're trying to get those on board and we're trying to get them in the best hotels and the best attractions in town which we have many throughout the community yep and so but the Catalyst of course is having a facility that promotes or that's capable of handling a large tournament uh you know like like Compton Compton's obviously this is grade A I would assume in the world of Youth Hockey but there are other sports that come to town aren't there there are there's baseball we use Newton park down in Lakeville for a lot of baseball tournaments we even use the university Notre Dame for different tournaments throughout the summer so um that's just one of them and Lacrosse uses it Edwardsburg Sports Complex just across the border Michigan we also use Indian Invaders that has hosted lacrosse and soccer and quad ball before so the the list is really endless here in the community and so as you look at the calendar and as you look at these events coming into town would you say On Any Given weekend there could be a youth uh sports event happening in and around South Bend and Michiana absolutely yeah we shoot our goal is to get at least once youth sports event each weekend throughout the calendar year with some caveats like Notre Dame football home games we kind of stay away from those we stay away from graduation weekend but pretty much I have a spreadsheet and it's full it's it's bright red and it's full pretty much throughout the whole year so it's great to see you we're constantly adding events to that and we're looking for more events to bring in year after year so in addition to coming to play as you mentioned earlier they're also coming and usually accompanied by brothers sisters parents so they're looking for other things to do um is there uh is there a symbi meiosis you mentioned you don't want them on home games but is there there are other attractions that they often look for like an ND hockey game after or before the tournament absolutely like you mentioned when those tournaments and kids and are coming they're bringing their parents they're bringing their siblings they're bringing their grandparents in some instances so one participant could be you know accountable for Ford and when you do those numbers it adds up quickly and like you said they're here to play in their competition or their game but that might only be an hour so when they leave that we want to get them out in the community and we want them to experience all of our attractions they go to a lot of Notre Dame basketball and hockey games they're going to Howard Park ice skating there they're going to all the Mishawaka parks they just built a brand new ice ribbon bowling alleys Sky Zone I mean there the list is endless for attraction so first and foremost is on field play but then they also looking for the best restaurants we have and everything that they can do to make that experience the best for their family while they're in the community well that's great well Nick thank you for showing us around thanks for talking about Youth Sports Jeff back to you in the studio I know your guest is talking more about Youth Sports and how it's such a major impact on our economic Community but I'm going to be here looking around the ice arena and maybe they'll give me a pair of skates George Nick thank you appreciate the chance to look at what's going on out in the community and hearing a little bit more about it guys as we finish um Jeff talk a little bit about just sort of building the inventory you talked about you know kind of the wide variety of sports that we have here the number of facilities we have some plans to make some improvements there talk a little bit about that yeah we're incredibly excited about what's going on in Mishawaka so Mishawaka will break ground here in the next couple of months and what's being called the Mishawaka field house and that includes 10 indoor basketball courts which can be converted into 17 volleyball courts and two full-sized football fields undercover so it's just incredible and so why the concept isn't necessarily new across the country it's though proven as a business asset to a community and so we are so excited to be able to welcome that to St Joseph County and to be able to see and reap the benefits of what that means not only from a local programmatic standpoint of of residents and and those within the county in the region coming in on a given afternoon or evening for a batting practice or tryouts or their club team or whatever their case may be but also the additional visitors that will mean and ultimately come to the county because of that new facility so we're expecting that to come online and be fully programmed by the summer of 2024. great Mike I want to stick your way you said because you talked briefly about um uh kind of trying to get these three buckets one of them being that youth sports that's happening like during so so how busy are you um during the week with the local folks who are using your facilities to uh um to learn to play hockey and to play games yeah we're very busy um you know especially you know this time of the year the traditional hockey season because we did use some ice outside at Merrifield and then at one point even at Howard Park before um so yeah we have some teams that used to practice outside that we now have to move inside so I would say during a typical hockey season we're pretty much maxed out on as far as available ice time and we're proud of that because we have a lot of kids that are participating in in hockey but I think it kind of we're struggled with there's some additional things we'd like to do but we can't because we don't have enough ice sure sure Jeff is we're talking about Building Product when I think about the our geography here sort of Indianapolis is a strong reputation for some of what they've done on Youth Sports parents here traveling to Grand Rapids talk about just generally communities making these Investments and why they're so important yeah they're hugely important right and I think in part they're proven they're proven time and time again in terms of what they're able to contribute back to the economy or the development that follows suit with it I think the balancing and Tipping Point though might be the decision a community has with respect to the size of that facility that they all don't have to be Westfield's Grand Park which is this is exquisite development on 31 North of Indianapolis where you see restaurants and hotels and any number of shopping centers following suit on the 31 Corridor those are expensive to operate and I think at times a challenge for government sector to run and to make sure that it just doesn't cost the taxpayers a lot of money and so I think there's the right amount of work that needs to go in with respect to the size and what makes sense in a given community and I think the model in Mishawaka the inventory that we have here with uh ice hockey sheets baseball fields is not quite where we need it to be and ultimately we want it to be to hit really that sweet spot but we're closing in on that it doesn't mean that it has to be the size of the facility at North Point in Georgia or Westfield but more than what we have today will better serve St Joseph County longer term but it's a delicate balance and it takes a lot of conversation takes a lot of planning takes a lot of strategy associated with it to know when you hit that right number such that it doesn't become that expensive to run at the end of the day my class Target so families that are coming to campus that are participating in tournaments and such they're they're also traveling the Midwest and going to other spots but what's the what's their take what's their observation um what do they say about this area well I think I think it starts with being able to play a game on campus at the University of Notre Dame um so like this weekend a high percent they're going to play five games most of those games would be at Notre Dame in a youth hockey a hockey time is another group for sure they will be able to play one game at Notre Dame so I think that's a big piece of it I think having the ice box very close by they're not traveling very far for that second third game and then I think they're we're very proud of and we're very happy with our hotels they're close to The Rinks they're used to working with hockey families they've developed ways to make that experience even better so we have several families that come uh you know maybe they were here they come back a couple years and they they comment on how nice the facility still looks but how nice it is to come to South Bend and they really enjoy coming here okay Jeff in our last couple minutes let's let's talk hotels because Mike you know I think the the conventional wisdom here used to be um you know six football games you know graduation move-in weekend and you know we were gonna have like nine or ten good hotel weekends your job as you talked about is to to make sure we have more um more than that so so talk uh maybe just a little bit um as we're in our last couple minutes about about that about sort of filling up these other um weekends that we that traditionally are pretty slow times yeah and so for us in St Joseph County really we see that a little bit of a lull in the hotel occupancy in the months of November through March I don't think that's unique to the county I think it's a combination of geography and uh climate and those sorts of of uh the winter part of it but that's okay you know there's still plenty of things to do and activities to see and enjoy and so for us specifically having a Mishawaka field house having Compton having the ice box that allow for winter programming that's just a drive away that gives you something else to do and something else to enjoy is hugely impactful so as Mike mentioned 28 out of 36 weekends next year already full with hockey and so they're coming in on a Thursday night oftentimes staying until Sunday filling those hotel rooms going to the restaurants going to the shopping centers the impact of that cannot be understated in the sense of when we're at our our lowest Mark and sense of leisure travel we're able to backfill that and help buoy during those more difficult times the hotel occupancy because of Youth Sports and so the ability and the priority for us to grow that longer term is hugely important and I believe we'll see the benefits of that in the coming years great Mike in our last minute any advice to parents or kids who are watching at home about even just getting involved in these Sports what you know never played a game of hockey want to get involved how do they do that well I mean there's certainly a learn to play program a learned Escape program but I just look at sport in general and an opportunity to be active to get to meet a new set of friends to to you know have different coaches that you get to be you know be who will become an additional Mentor for you in your young life and like I said it's just it doesn't have to be hockey but I mean just an opportunity to get out there and be active and meet a new group of friends I think is something I would highly encourage great guys thank you for very much appreciate the Insight the Insight look today appreciate that that's it for our show today thank you for watching on wnit or listening to our podcast to watch this episode again or any of our past episodes you can find economic Outlook at wnit.org find our podcast on most major podcast platforms I want to encourage you to like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter I'm Jeff Ray I'll see you next time [Music] thank you [Music] this wnit local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you thank you

2023-02-14 17:37

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