Category: Sports Marketing

Happy Holidays from the VB Sports Team. The first person who writes back and says “VB Sports is looking good today!” wins some swag to represent the home team.

CHEERS!

When the weather cools down sports business heats up in Virginia Beach. The VB Sports team is wrapping up an incredibly busy month of sports tourism activity…..10 events in one month!

Shout out to Kenneth Payne, Dani Timm, Bill Kelly and Megan Valentine for ensuring that sports tourism in Virginia Beach is a success. Also, special thanks to our partners at the Virginia Beach Convention Center, Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation and venues throughout the City for delivering the highest level of service and leaving our customers with anticipation and excitement about the possibility of hosting repeat events in Virginia Beach!

Check out these great highlights from this year’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon!

Jon Schmieder, a widely known sports tourism industry consultant, is writing his second book on Sports Service. We are highlighted in Chapter 1.

Check the excerpt below!

Event Bidding Best Practice Spotlight – Virginia Beach

 
Nancy Helman, Director of Sports Marketing for Virginia Beach, says her organization has a Golden Rule, “Don’t write checks with your mouth, that your body can’t cash.”  Virginia Beach Sports Marketing is widely considered one of the top sports commissions in the country.  That didn’t happen by chance, as Nancy points out, “If you commit to something during the bidding or negotiation process, you better deliver.  Every time.  This industry, even with the rapid growth over the past 10 years, is still relatively small and close knit.  Event owners talk to each other.  Remember that.”
 
Their record speaks for itself.  Virginia Beach Sports Marketing has a client return rate of 86%, which is something critically important to their work and Nancy points out, “That number is really important to us.  Our team is dedicated to ensure that every event in Virginia Beach is successful.”  One of the things that she says sets the Virginia Beach team apart is their staff make-up.  They are all event professionals first, sales people second, “Every member of our team from top to bottom started our careers in the event business.  We aren’t “sales people,” we are a team of professionals who know how to locate, bid on, negotiate and deliver successful events.  We know what event owners want because we try to see events through their eyes.  In order to create a mutually beneficial relationship, having the ability to create a fiscally responsible event is necessary, so business decisions need to be made.  However, at the end of the day, when the event is wrapped up, we want event owners to say, ‘This was my most successful event ever and if the opportunity presents itself, I am coming back to Virginia Beach because they get it.’”
 

VB Sports Marketing will be hosting three events this weekend in the Princess Anne Commons area  of Virginia Beach including the US Field Hockey Club Qualifier, featuring  an estimated 480 athletes/810 spectators at US Field Hockey Training Center, the 8^th Annual Beach Bash Lacrosse Tournament at the Princess Anne Athletic Complex with 1,000 athletes/1,000 spectators and 400 athletes/700 spectators at the Princess Anne Athletic Complex for Baseball Youth Majors.

In FY17 VB Sports Marketing hosted 55 events in the Princess Anne Commons area which had an estimated total attendance of 117,714 and 29,749 hotel room nights. Thank you to our partners at the Princess Anne Athletic Complex/Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation Department, the Hampton Roads Soccer Complex, Virginia Beach Fieldhouse, YMCA/TIDE Swimming, Virginia Beach SportsPlex and the US Field Hockey Regional Training Center for recognizing the value of sports tourism and assisting with providing award-winning customer service.

If you or someone you know attends a championship sports event somewhere else in the US that you think would be a great fit for one of the awesome venues in the Princess Anne Commons Area, please reach out to the VB Sports Marketing team at 757-385-6673.  Help is bring more great events to the City! For more information about VB Sports Marketing, please log on to www.vbsports.com.

The CVB Sports Marketing team welcomes the National High School Coaches Association Duals Wrestling Championship to the Virginia Beach Convention Center, Mat 26-29. As one of the largest duals wrestling events in the country, this event features 366 teams, more than 5,300 participants and 58 wrestling mats running simultaneously. For more information on the NHSCA Duals Championship, log onto www.NHSCA.com  If you would like to check out the wrestling action this weekend at “The Battle at the Beach,” be one of the first 10 people to email nhelman@vbgov.com and we will leave tickets for you at the Will Call Window inside the VB Convention Center. Deadline to email is Friday, May 26^th at 12 noon.