Oregon’s Adventure

Oregon’s Adventure Coast

BREATHTAKING VIEWS AND OUTDOOR ESCAPADES ARE RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER IN OREGON’S ADVENTURE COAST: COOS BAY, NORTH BEND, CHARLESTON, WHERE RELAXATION AND SPORT COLLIDE

Whiskey Run Mountain Biking Trail

Scan to discover more of what Oregon’s Adventure Coast offers sports planners at SportsPlanningGuide.com

Southwestern Oregon Community College

Mingus Park Swimming Pool

Oregon’s Adventure Coast is most easily accessible via U.S. Highway 101, which runs from north to south along the Pacific Ocean from Washington to California. If you’re flying into the area, Southwest Oregon Regional Airport in North Bend offers passenger flights through United Express.

FACILITY SPOTLIGHT

Whiskey Run Mountain Biking Trail

Biking

Professionally-built to accommodate riders of all skill levels, the Whiskey Run Trails are a blend between flow and cross-country style, giving riders open sight lines, easy climbs and chances to catch big air, if you’re into that sort of thing. Whiskey Run was built to withstand all weather types and feature more than 30 miles of single-track two way trails as riders whip through the forest while experiencing a gorgeous forest floor.

Southwestern Oregon Community College

Multipurpose

With scenic views of Empire Lakes and the surrounding forests, Southwestern Oregon Community College’s sports facilities provide an excellent backdrop for your next tournament. The campus’ rec center can host basketball, volleyball, wrestling, racquet ball, track and field, dance and rock climbing competitions and features state-of-the-art scoreboards, six automatic basketball hoops, a rock climbing wall and full fitness room.

City of Coos Bay Mingus Park Swimming Pool

Swimming, diving

First opened in 1943, this historic pool promotes a healthy, active and fun lifestyle and is open to all ages seven days a week. It serves as headquarters for the Gold Coast Swim Team and a variety of swim meets annually.

Marshfield High School

Multipurpose

With five grade levels and a campus consisting of four main buildings, Marshfield High School is one of the hosts of the OSAA 3A Basketball Tournament annually in February and March. The school can host some of the largest indoor events in the region, with a main gymnasium that has seating for 4,000.

Barview Area Charleston Area Park Association Baseball Complex

Baseball, softball, multipurpose

BACAPA Park started as a dream years ago and in 2019 made strides toward the future, where it hopes to upgrade its existing complex and build beyond one baseball field.

North Bend High School

Multipurpose

Longstanding traditions and excellent amenities are the norm at Vic Adams Field, where North Bend hosts its version of Friday night lights during football season. Clyde Allen Baseball Park is another historic venue, with seating for 300 spectators and standing-room for 300 more. In existence since 1947, the field has 8-foot-tall fences that measure 310 feet in left field, 375 to dead center and 289 feet to right field.

OREGON’S ADVENTURE COAST

Janice Langlinais Executive Director 541-269-1181 x2303 Janice@OregonsAdventureCoast.com www.OregonsAdventureCoast.com

POPULAR ACTIVITIES

▶Come meet the local seals and sea lions when you stop at the

Cape Arago Beach Loop, or find the cascading waterfall in the

Golden and Silver Falls State

Natural Area.

▶The Oregon Dunes National

Recreation Area are the largest expanse of sand dunes in North

America and are perfect for dune buggies and ATVs.

▶Delicious fresh catch is available throughout the region, which is a hotspot for fishing, crabbing and clamming.

▶A treasure trove of eclectic items await in downtown Coos Bay and downtown North Bend, home to unique shopping experiences.

PLAYING 3D CHESS

The best organizations will be raising the bar and following a smart plan in the upcoming year

As we noted last year in this column, sports tourism now has a better seat at the collective tourism table than ever before. Destinations are dedicating more time and resources to the sports market than at any time in my 26 years serving this industry. For our eighth edition of the Sports Planning Guide trends article, our team at Huddle Up Group looked back at the past year to craft and share the eight trends to look for in 2023 and beyond.

1Emphasis – Destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and convention and visitor bureaus (CVBs) across the country are investing more resources in sports tourism today than ever before. This comes in the form of an increased sports marketing effort and often times in facility development.

The pandemic proved to us what we have been saying all along – sports tourism is immune from economic downturns, international conflicts and yes, pandemics.

2Bricks and Mortar – Nearly every project our team touched this past year had a facility element to it. What venues is that destination missing? Which of their existing facilities can be enhanced to become tournament friendly? Ten years ago, very few tourism agencies were investing in bricks and mortar. Today, nearly every one we work with is getting in the weeds with their community leaders to help develop new facilities and/or enhance existing venues.

3Funding – How do we fund facility development and enhancement? Tourism Improvement Districts (or TIDs) are definitely the most popular route to take today. Nearly every community we work with is pushing forward some form of state and locally enabling legislation to put a TID in place to fund sports tourism marketing and facility development.

4DEI – Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (or DEI) has become a front line topic for CVBs and event rights holders alike. Several event owners have rebranded to give notice that they are intentionally addressing DEI issues. Destination International has also provided some excellent best practices in this area for CVBs through their DEI Committee’s work.

5Pickleball – The fastest growing sport in America is taking over. Pickleball has become an “overnight success” starting in a driveway in Washington State in 1967, with the first official organization for the sport being formed in 1972. One thing our team talks about when looking at the rise of pickleball over the past decade is this – what new sport will emerge next? Slamball? Maybe teqball? More sport options mean more potential participants which mean more tournaments to host.

6Regionality – Even prior to the pandemic, there was a growing trend of “national championship” events becoming more drive market than cross country flights. That is, the teams were more and more coming from a day’s drive to a tournament than getting on a plane to travel long distances. The pandemic only accelerated that trend. This is important to consider when you are working to create your own events, as you will want to focus on clubs and teams from within a day’s drive versus trying to recruit teams from greater distances.

7Special Events – More tourism organizations are adding the marketing and management of special events to the sports department’s plate. The ability to execute a sporting event isn’t that much different than producing a music festival. Putting on the “backpacks” (as we like to call it) for special events is becoming quite common for those with an experienced sports staff on the team.

8Bigger, Better, Stronger, Faster – One of the most common calls we got this past year from destinations was this, “We had to furlough all our people during the pandemic, but sports kept rolling. So, we need to build our sports program back up to a place where it is even bigger and better than it was before.” This is another form of doubling down on the great performance sports tourism offered the industry over the past two-plus years.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jon Schmieder is the Founder of the Huddle Up Group LLC, a sports industry consulting company led by award winning executives. Schmieder has 25 years of experience in leading sports tourism and events organizations through strategic growth and increased community collaboration. We can be reached at Jon@HuddleUpGroup.com or 602.369.6955. To receive the weekly “Monday Huddle Up” visit www.HuddleUpGroup.com or sign up at www.tinyletter.com/JonSchmieder. © Huddle Up Group, 2021

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