VLPRA Launches Sports Recruitment Brand
Tuesday, October 4th, 2022
After years of successfully bringing youth and adult sports tournaments to town, the Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks & Recreation Authority is doubling down on its efforts by launching a new sports recruitment brand: “Compete Valdosta-Lowndes.”
VLPRA created the CVL brand specifically for engaging sports tournament and event directors. “Sports event and tournament managers are a niche market,” VLPRA & CVL Marketing & Public Relations Director Jessica Catlett said. “They are looking for athletic facilities that cater to their specific sports needs. It’s important we communicate what we are able to offer in a way that makes it easy for them to choose Valdosta & Lowndes County as their destination.”
The brand’s new website, www.competevaldostalowndes.com, showcases VLPRA sports facilities as well as partner facilities around Valdosta and Lowndes County. Those partnerships are an integral part of tournament recruitment and have been a bedrock of the success VLPRA has experienced over the last several years bringing tournaments to town.
“Valdosta State University and our local school systems have opened their fields and courts to dozens of events, bringing thousands of athletes to our community,” said VLPRA and CVL Executive Director George Page. “With all of us working together, we have been able to bring in more than two dozen tournaments and 11,000 participants in 2021 alone. That has resulted in an economic impact of over $7 Million dollars to our community in just one year.”
VLPRA has tracked the economic impact of sports tournaments for nearly nine years. In that time, the Authority’s recruited tournaments and events have brought in more than $50 Million of economic impact to Valdosta and Lowndes County, according to Destinations Internationals’ Economic Impact Calculator.
Page expects to build on that success with the addition of Compete Valdosta-Lowndes and future facility projects.
“Facilities are the foundation of sports tournament recruitment,” Page said. “We are blessed to have wonderful fields and courts in our community. While baseball, softball, and tennis have been our main focus, we are excited to expand our footprint and open up to a wider variety of sports and participants, resulting in even greater economic impact. We want athletes across America to find out what people here already know: this is a championship destination.”
