Northwest Sports Hub
One year after its formation, the Twin Cities Sports Commission is trying to quantify precisely what sort of economic impact their efforts have had in the community thus far.
A subcommittee of the Lewis County Public Facilities District, the Twin Cities Sports Commission is funded by a $2 per night tax on stays at hotels and motels in Centralia and Chehalis. The commission oversees the operation of the Northwest Sports Hub in addition to coordinating efforts between sports tournament organizers at other area facilities and local businesses.
So far those efforts have been primarily focused on hotel and motel accommodations for athletes and families visiting the Twin Cities for those sporting events. At a commission meeting on Tuesday Elijah White, administrative assistant for the Twin Cities Sports Commission, attempted to quantify the impact of those efforts.
A worksheet provided at the meeting contained year-to-date information pertaining to area overnight stays. So far this year there have been nine sporting events hosted in collaboration with the Twin Cities Sports Commission, which have resulted in a total of at least 887 rooms rented at local hotels and motels, according to the report. White estimates that those stays have resulted in $345,930 worth of local economic impact.
“A lot of our work here is to get heads in beds,” said White.
Breaking those numbers down even further, volleyball has had the largest impact thus far with 405 room nights attributed to three events. By comparison, three wrestling events have resulted in 270 room rentals. Baseball, softball and basketball have each held one event in conjunction with the Twin Cities Sports Commission and those stays have resulted in the rental of 87, 86, and 39 rooms nights, respectively. Currently there are 27 events slated for the rest of the year, including 11 softball events, eight basketball events, seven baseball events, and one pickleball event.
The Twin Cities Sports Commission offers rebates as an incentive to get teams to stay overnight in the area. So far this year those rebates have amounted to $13,305 but commission member Dale Pullin says he’s not sure those kickbacks are having their intended effect.
“I’m not convinced that our incentives are actually doing us much good yet, but I believe that they will,” said Pullin, who noted that the commission is currently working to improve the online reservation system so that teams can block out groups of rooms at group discount rates.
White said that the overall economic impact is likely greater than the hard data shows due to overnight stays that go untracked at hotels and motels that are not actively participating in the program.
Pullin noted that there are plans in the works for commission members to go around to all of the hotels and motels suitable for hosting youth sporting teams in the coming months in order to improve communications and collaboration.
“Right now we’re at about 40 percent of where I’d like to be, but we’re going to get there and when we do it’s going to be an economic machine,” Pullin promised.
Other items of business discussed on Tuesday included improvements in group’s process for paying event promoters. Currently there are seven promoters awaiting payment on events hosted earlier in the year. The commission began the process of streamlining their payment process and said in the future they would like to be able guarantee that those payments will be made within 30-45 days of the event.
Pullin also provided an update on the ongoing effort to register the Twin Cities Sports Commission as a non-profit entity.
“There’s been a little bit of a hiccup in that,” said Pullin. He explained that the process is now being directed through Lewis County since the commission is run a cooperative venture between the cities of Centralia and Chehalis.
“It’s on hold until they tell us exactly, legally, what we can do,” added Pullin.
There was also brief discussion about the ongoing effort to sell the naming rights of the Northwest Sports Hub and adjacent facilities. The commission voted unanimously to have White represent the group on a naming rights committee in order to glean as much information about the process as possible.
“The goal is to improve the Sports Hub and the entire complex as well, including the School District facilities,” said Pullin. “What we’re trying to do is make our area competitive compared to outlying areas and make our area as attractive as possible to promoters.”
Part of that effort will include the installation of assorted “Welcome” banners around the freeway entrances to the Hub and Mint cities, as well as along the routes to the various sports complexes. On Tuesday the commission reviewed several samples of those banners, which included large drop down styles and those that can be hung from telephone poles.
White noted that the signs can be personalized for each event so that they are welcoming a particular team, group, or association. He explained that whereas the stock banners say “Welcome Athletes” the signs are designed so that smaller banner can be placed over the “Athletes” column so that it specifically welcomes “Baseball Players” or “Wrestlers”, for instance.
“What we want is for the athletes to pull into town and feel like all of this is just for them,” said White.
