Around 11 a.m. Friday, Tim Morgan was in Williamson County getting ready to attend the state wrestling championships — an event he hopes to eventually bring back to Hamilton County.
Morgan is the head of the Sports & Events Corp., a new local organization focused on sports tourism, and his job is to attract athletic events to Chattanooga.
Tournaments bring out-of-town visitors to the region, and out-of-town visitors spend money at hotels, restaurants and businesses, strengthening the economy while also generating tax revenue for local governments. Now, Morgan’s organization will receive another $480,000 from Hamilton County to advance this mission. The funds come from a tax the county charges on hotel stays.
“The sales process never ends,” Morgan said in a phone call, “and when you go out and secure these events, you have to have the resources to execute accordingly.”
The Hamilton County Commission voted Wednesday to divert this $480,000 out of the budget of the Chattanooga Tourism Co., an agency that has historically been tasked with boosting visitor spending. It has traditionally received the vast majority of its funding from the county’s hotel-motel tax.