Big or small, televised on ESPN or occurring with little fanfare, it doesn’t matter to Greater Chattanooga Sports & Events Committee president Scott Smith.
What does matter is that the events bid on by the Sports Committee and held in and around the Scenic City lead to overnight stays in area hotels and busy shops and restaurants.
“It’s all about the room nights and the economic impact,” said Smith, who replaced Merrill Eckstein as the Sports Committee president in March 2009.
Smith’s first 15 months as president haven’t exactly gone according to hopes, at least when it comes to retaining or bringing in marquee events.
The NCAA Division I football national championship game was moved to Frisco, Texas, after 13 years at Finley Stadium. Chattanooga lost out on hosting three TSSAA championships — wrestling, football and the Spring Fling — and failed to land the 2012-14 Southern Conference men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, all of which will be played in Asheville, N.C.
“We didn’t win any of those, yet we had some of our best preparations and bids ever,” Smith said.
The 2011 SoCon basketball tournaments will be played at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s McKenzie Arena, but after that there aren’t any major sporting events — the kind that will catch the interest of a lot of local fans — on the horizon.
Sports Committee board member Doug Dyer said the best way for locals to show they want more marquee events here is to show up at the Roundhouse during the SoCon tournaments next season.
“I think it’s important for our city to have these type of events,” Dyer said. “If the local people want to say they’re interested in sports, come out and watch.”
The Sports Committee reported a record estimated economic impact for 2009 of $25.1 million. The events that had the biggest impact, according to the report, were the Head of the Hooch rowing regatta ($4.3 million) and the National Softball Association Girls Class “A” Fast Pitch World Series ($3.5 million).
The SoCon basketball tournaments ($1.3 million) and the FCS national championship game ($919,000) were solid producers, but not on the level of the top events, which drew less interest from the local community.
Chattanooga will host more major softball events this summer, part of a very full Sports Committee calendar.
“These NSA and ASA softball tournaments that are coming this summer are way better than SoCon basketball, are way better than NCAA football, but they don’t get the notoriety,” Smith said. “That’s the difference, yet it would take two or three SoCon basketballs to equal one of these softballs, and they’re a lot less work, they’re a lot cheaper, there’s no financial risk.”
Smith and the Sports Committee are searching for more events to bring to Chattanooga, mostly in 2012 and beyond. Among those that are being considered or bid on are an AAU national girls basketball tournament, a USA Weightlifting competition, U.S. Cycling race and possibly even a chess tournament.
The Sports Committee also is considering bidding on first- and second-round games in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament in 2012 — despite the disaster that was the 2009 tournament.
No nearby teams led to low attendance which led to a $49,425 loss in ’09, the largest the Sports Committee has suffered since its founding in 1992. By offering a much lower guarantee this time, the Sports Committee may lessen its chance of hosting again, but at the same time “we’ll make sure we’re not going to lose all that money like we did last time,” Smith said.
In the meantime, the committee will keep bidding on and hosting events big and small.
“As long as we can keep getting events and getting room nights,” Smith said, “we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing.”