Panel calls for Maine sports commission
The sports industry pumps as much as $1.8 billion into Maine each year, and that figure could be much higher if the state had a sports commission to actively recruit events.
This was the consensus a panel of sports and tourism industry officials reached during the recent “Business of Sports in Maine” forum sponsored by the University of Southern Maine in Portland. The forum was intended to bring together various nonprofit and for-profit groups that host or recruit sporting events to explore collaborations to increase sports business in Maine.
“There’s interest, there’s passion and there’s excitement behind it,” says Brian Corcoran, owner of Shamrock Sports Group in Portland, who has worked for NASCAR and the Fenway Sports Group in Boston. “But you need to have the right people and the right game plan behind it.”
The primary benefit of a sports commission would be its ability to raise money and hire
full-time professional recruiters to bring more sports events to Maine, increasing the $1.8 billion they already generate in Maine, according to Corcoran. There is no singular group charged with that responsibility now, with various groups working independently on their own events.
Andy Shepard, president and CEO of the Maine Winter Sports Center in Caribou, says a sports commission would allow the state to take a more strategic approach in pursuing sporting events, rather than the current model based on serendipity.
“I think it is important to get all the leading players together to create a more powerful message for the people who run these large-scale events,” says Shepard.
He speaks from experience. Maine Winter Sports Center hosted the Biathlon World Cup in 2004 at the 10th Mountain Ski Center in Fort Kent. Shepard says the event, which is a combination of Nordic skiing and shooting, attracted 20,000 spectators and a television viewing audience of 50 million people, and generated a $5.2 million economic impact.
The event returns in 2011 and is projected to draw as many as 35,000 spectators and 60 million television viewers in North America and Europe. Shepard expects the event will pump more than $7 million into the Fort Kent region, an area with one of the highest poverty rates east of the Mississippi River, he says.
In the gates
Barbara Whitten, president and CEO of the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater Portland, has worked to help bring large-scale sporting events to Portland that generated millions of dollars for hotels, restaurants, retail shops and transportation companies. They are in addition to the Portland-based sports franchises such as the Maine Red Claws of the National Basketball Association’s Development League, the Portland Sea Dogs, which are the Double A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, and the Portland Pirates, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres in the National Hockey League. All attract their share of visitors to Portland.
“The development of a sports commission would be invaluable,” says Whitten. “I believe the time has come for us to take the next step and form a private-public partnership to form a sports commission here in Maine.”
The economic benefit of sports events is significant. Brian Petrovek, managing owner and CEO of the Portland Pirates, says hosting the American Hockey League’s All-Star Classic twice in the last few years generated $1.3 million to $1.5 million for Greater Portland each time. He says as many as 100 million households watched each game on cable television networks across the U.S. and Canada.
Last year, the North Atlantic Figure Skating Club in Falmouth brought the U.S. Synchronized Figure Skating Championship to the Cumberland County Civic Center in March, generating more than $2 million. Whitten says the three-day event drew 13,000 attendees and filled more than 3,600 room nights at hotels across the region. She says the region’s three motor coach companies made $150,000 in revenue.
Similarly, the U.S. Region One Youth Soccer Championships in 2008 and 2009 pumped more than $11 million in revenue each year right before the Fourth of July holiday weekend, she says. Roughly 15,000 room nights were booked at 53 hotels stretched from York to Augusta. The tournaments also brought 17,000 players, coaches, officials and spectators to the Greater Portland region.
Corcoran, who started his sports marketing firm in March, says states that have strong sports commissions have succeeded in attracting events and more revenue. He cites the economic impact of the Spokane Regional Sports Commission in Washington, estimated to have generated $150 million since 1988. He says its efforts brought the U.S. Figure Skating Championships and NCAA Basketball tournaments to Spokane in addition to the Spokane Shock, an Arena Football League team.
Whitten says a Maine sports commission could register with the National Association of Sports Commissions, a nonprofit group based in Cincinnati that facilitates bidding on various sporting events.
Don Schumacher, executive director of the National Association of Sports Commissions, says one of the best NASC benefits is access to a vast network of sports events, market data and other resources that present more opportunities to land events. He says an upcoming national sports symposium in Columbus, Ohio, will feature a marketplace where sports event owners can meet with sports commissions from different states or cities. His advice to the Maine sports industry: Get organized, form a commission and attend the group’s 2011 symposium in Greensboro, N.C., to get in the game.
“You’re not an overnight success,” Schumacher says, adding it would take time for a fledgling Maine sports commission to establish relationships that produce results.
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