Thousands of teenage soccer players will converge on central Arkansas by Thursday for the U.S. Youth Soccer Region 3 championships at North Little Rock's Burns Park, resulting in a projected $5.7 million in revenue for area hotels, restaurants, movie theaters and other businesses.
Those involved in the tournament, which begins Friday and runs through June 25 at the Burns Park Soccer Complex, have 3,186 rooms reserved at 48 hotels in Little Rock, North Little Rock, Maumelle, Conway, Bryant and Benton for 198 teams, according to the North Little Rock Visitors Bureau.
"Even the other cities around here are going to benefit because these people will be looking for places to eat and looking for things to do because they won't be playing soccer all day, every day," said Bob Major, North Little Rock's Advertising and Promotions Commission executive director. "This is huge, it really is."
The Arkansas State Soccer Association estimates that the South regional tournament will draw 3,600 players from 12 state associations in 11 states. Texas is divided into two sections. Fifteen Arkansas teams are entered among the seven age divisions for boys and girls from Under-13 through Under-19.
Major youth sports tournaments are coveted revenue producers because, unlike even large business conventions, youth sports teams attract several thousand nonplayers, tourism officials said. Teams take coaches, parents, siblings and even grandparents who will be filling up vehicles at area gas stations, shopping for supplies and trying to keep players and siblings entertained during players' down time.
"If you're the National Association of CPAs [accountants], those folks are in meetings all day long and probably have planned meal functions at night, then maybe some free time," said David Russell, director of sports sales for the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau.
"In the sports world, some of these teams will have a game at 8 in the morning, are through by 9:30 and by 10 o'clock are back at their hotel," Russell said. "A teen-aged kid isn't going to sit in a hotel all day. Their parents will be taking them to movie theaters, [North Little Rock's] Wild River Country, a Travelers [baseball] game or to the mall.
"So a larger segment of our economy benefits from these youth sport events," he said. "A family will be looking for activities for these kids to do."
The tournament is projected to result in $5.7 million in "direct spending" within central Arkansas, according to Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau figures. The projection doesn't rely on a "multiplier" many in the travel industry used in previous years and that could produce wildly higher spending projections, Russell said.
"If you spend a dollar in the community, that's a direct expenditure," Russell said. "That dollar may change hands three or four times, but it's still only one new dollar."
The projected increase in revenue and the number of visitors to the area -- including 48 college coaches who had registered for tournament credentials by the middle of last week -- is part of the reason other city departments helped Parks and Recreation staff and tournament volunteers to get Burns Park's soccer fields back into good condition after recent flooding.
All but three of the fields had been underwater, and access to the complex blocked, in part of May and early this month because of Arkansas River flooding. However, city officials pledged during those weeks that the soccer fields would be back in shape so the city could remain the host site.
"They're doing pretty well," Bob Rhoads, North Little Rock's Parks and Recreation Department director, said last week about the park's 17 fields. "The water's been off of all of them since [early last week]. Hopefully all will be used. We'll know for sure about the four [most affected] fields later. The state soccer folks were going to have contingency plans anyway. They are supposed to have some backups and were going to look at a couple of places."
An opening ceremony is planned Thursday with a parade from the Clinton Presidential Center to Riverfront Park in Little Rock. Pool play will be Friday-Sunday, with single-elimination games June 22-25. Regional winners advance to nationals.
Teams that keep advancing "will be here for up to a week," Major said. "There will also be others who are here to watch the kids who may have reservations at the same hotel but are not part of the soccer team. An example might be grandparents who have booked at a senior or AARP rate."
Allen Finney, a state soccer association volunteer who is helping coordinate the tournament with the North Little Rock Parks and Recreation Department, said the tournament's format adds to the positive effect on the area economies because of the amount of time many teams will be staying.
"This tournament is a play one game a day and have a lot of time to kill kind of thing," Finney said. "There will be a lot of opportunities for people to go to our movie theaters and our restaurants and bowling alleys and museums and whatnot to find something to fill the time. Especially when you have those players with siblings along with them."
The state soccer association has created a mobile app especially for the tournament that will provide maps and guides to restaurants and attractions, as well as promotions available during the tournament, Little Rock's Russell said. Shopping for incidentals and souvenirs will also be a way to pass time, he said.
"When you're here for a week, you always need ice for the cooler and things like sun block," Russell said. "You always need a Wal-Mart and the family-friendly restaurants."
Metro on 06/15/2015