Virginia Sports Partnerships Extend to its Colleges and Universities
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Great relationships between cities and schools enable sporting events to flourish in the Commonwealth
By Jason Paha hen it comes to hosting sporting events, Virginia has established itself as a national pacesetter. Thanks in large part to Sports Virginia members, a statewide collaboration of professionals from local convention and visitor bureaus, the Old Dominion State has hosted numerous top-flight tournaments over the years. Among those competitions include the Atlantic 10 Women’s Basketball Championship, the Washington Football Team’s training camp, the Babe Ruth World Series, the Amateur Athletic Union Junior Olympic Games, the UCI Road World Championships and the State Games of Virginia. A large reason behind Virginia’s success is the harmonious partnerships DMOs share with their local university. An example of this can be found in the relationship between the City of Harrisonburg and James Madison University, a public research university that was founded in 1908. “Harrisonburg has a good working relationship with JMU,” said Jennifer E. Bell, tourism manager for the City of Harrisonburg. “JMU’s facilities are valuable in drawing sports tourism to the area. When JMU is able to host sports competitions that draw visitors to the area,
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it supports Harrisonburg’s tourism industry through lodging rental, meals expenditures and patronage to Harrisonburg businesses.” The alliance between city and university only figures to strengthen when James Madison opens its new state-of-theart arena that will seat 8,500 for basketball games, the JMU Atlantic Union Bank Center. “We are anticipating with the completion of the new JMU Atlantic Union Bank Center that there will be more opportunities for basketball tournaments to be hosted on the campus and that in the offseason the center will be available to host other events,” Bell added. The City of Fairfax has been rated one of the top places to live well in the country according to Forbes magazine. One reason for this is the presence of George Mason University, the largest four-year public university in the Commonwealth of Virginia. “Visit Fairfax has a great relationship with George Mason University,” said Eric Kulczycky, national sales managersports marketing for Visit Fairfax. “Whenever our clients need facilities for their competitions, university staff respond promptly with information about availability and @SportsPlanGuide #SportsPG
