Pinellas County Sports Tourism Generates $30 Million, Faces Field Shortage

Pinellas County brought in 53 sports events from October through mid-March. Those events created 51,000 room-nights and $30 million in direct spending. Warm winter weather drew teams and tournaments to the area. So did new facilities like the $26.5 million Sprowls Horizon Sports Park, which opened in February.

Back-to-back college softball tournaments arrived this year. The NFCA and ESPN events featured 12 ranked teams, including the top two in the nation. The Clearwater Fall Classic, an invite-only amateur tournament, came to the area for the first time. It brought 82 teams. Eighty of those squads traveled from out of state.

"This shows how the best teams in the country come to Clearwater to start the year," said Caleb Peterson, Director of the Sports Commission for Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, during a Tourist Development Council meeting Wednesday morning, according to St. Pete Catalyst.

The out-of-state teams brought in roughly 5,000 room nights. Peterson mentioned the ESPN tournament's success has attracted interest from new tournament organizers, with effects trickling down into other youth sports.

"There's some great things happening in the youth space, because of some of the high-level things we've done in softball," Peterson added.

Four ice rinks in the county — two in Clearwater and two in Oldsmar — have seen increased use. Tournament organizers from Canada and Chicago filled those rinks from December through February. Youth sports clubs from across the country participated.

Officials are looking at opportunities for niche events like cliff diving, strongman competitions, foot volleyball, cornhole, and quidditch. Those discussions are still unfolding.

"There's all these wide-world-of-sports opportunities that are always looking for attractive destinations that know that if they bring their event to Pinellas, they are going to draw registrations," Peterson said.

Baseball and softball drive much of the economic impact, partly because the county has plenty of diamond-shaped fields. Growing demand for rectangular fields to accommodate soccer, football, and field hockey has created a gap in available space.

The 235-acre Toy Town landfill remains in the county's sightline as a potential space to add more fields. More studies are needed, as well as the right pitch to develop it. Nobody knows yet what's buried under the ground.

"It's an exciting time. There's a lot of demand for Pinellas," Peterson said. "Our biggest challenge is checking the facilities box to have the requisite number of fields and space for tournaments."