The team at SportsTravel has racked up thousands of miles this past year in the name of sports-related travel, attending sporting events at all levels from youth tournaments to the Olympic Games and the Super Bowl. Along the way, we’ve assembled some observations of those events and the logistics behind them. In this conversation, Executive Editor …

At this year’s TEAMS Conference, Indianapolis was announced as the winner of Best Host City at the SportsTravel Awards. Since July of 2023, Indianapolis has hosted events that total an estimated $500 million in economic impact, including the 2023 Big Ten Football Championship, the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend, the 2024 NFL Combine, 2024 NCAA Division …

After serving as chief executive officer of USA Weightlifting for nearly 10 years, Phil Andrews was appointed USA Fencing CEO in August 2022 to oversee the national governing body for the Olympic and Paralympic sport of fencing in the United States. This past summer, USA Fencing won four medals overall at the Olympic Summer Games in Paris, includin…

The NCAA is in a transformative era and that includes its championship landscape. Acrobatics and tumbling, equestrian, rugby, stunt, triathlon and women's wrestling are working their way through the NCAA’s Emerging Sports for Women program with the hopes of gaining enough university participation to become NCAA championships — with some on the cusp…

As president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, Geoff Freeman is the leading advocate for the more than $1 trillion U.S. travel and hospitality industry. In this role, he is charged with positioning the industry to seize emerging opportunities and further establishing travel as a vital economic force in the United States. Before taking over at…

Ezra Frech was born a congenital amputee but started off his athletic career mostly competing against non-disabled athletes. It was when he was 8 years old that his father took him to his first para competition, and given that support, he was able to perform at his highest level. After that day, Ezra and his father made a promise to each other that…

Like many Olympians and Paralympians, Susannah Scaroni has had to overcome her share of challenges. In her case, a car accident at the age of 5 caused her to need a wheelchair for mobility, a journey that led her to adaptive sports. Her initial experience was not positive. But when she discovered a welcoming adaptive sports program in Spokane, Wash…

You may not immediately recognize the name Danny Boy O’Connor. But if you’ve turned on a radio or attended an in-person sports event in the last 30 years you certainly know his music. As a co-founder of the group House of Pain, he was on the ground floor of the group’s biggest crossover hit, “Jump Around.” As you’ll hear in this conversation, he wa…

Dan Butterly has been the commissioner of the Big West Conference since July 1, 2020. He took the job at a time when Covid was wreaking havoc on the sports landscape and led the conference through uncertain times. Butterly has negotiated a large streaming contract with ESPN-plus and has ambitious designs for the future of the conference and its ath…

The Lionel Messi effect in his second season with Inter Miami is well underway in Major League Soccer, which has had five matches this season with an attendance of more than 60,000 or higher. MLS’ total attendance is up 13 percent compared to the same date last season and with the Copa America ongoing, the international club competition will segway…

One of the most high-profile sports in the Olympic Summer Games in Paris will be basketball. The USA Basketball teams have been some of the most dominant in Olympic history in any sport. The women’s team looks to extend its streak to eight consecutive gold medals and the men’s team looks for its fifth in a row, having only lost six games in Olympic…

Skip Gilbert is no stranger to the sports industry. As a former professional soccer player, the sport may well be his true love. But his previous stints included one with the USADA, the anti-doping agency, as managing director of operations, marketing and development; managing director of professional tennis operations and tournament manager for th…

In 2019, the Sports Events and Tourism Association, or Sports ETA, embarked on an ambitious State of the Industry report to attempt to put a value on the economic impact derived from sports events and sports-related travel. The timing was fortuitous as it set a baseline for future studies just before the pandemic. In 2022, a second report analyzed …

If you’ve ever seen traditional diving at the Olympic Games or in real life, you know that the cleaner the dive, the better the score. The goal in that discipline is to enter the water as straight as possible with as little splash as possible. But starting in the 1970s, a new generation of divers began something just a bit different. Starting in No…

Ron Price has been the chief executive officer of Visit Phoenix since July 2021. Prior to the move to Phoenix, Price had stops in Arlington and San Antonio, Texas, as well as more than a decade with Marriott in several places, including Denver and Southern California. Phoenix has become a basketball hotbed, having hosted the NCAA Men’s Final Four i…

Scott DeRue was named the new chief executive officer of The Ironman Group in January, joining the organization from Equinox, where he served as president. At Equinox, DeRue oversaw a business that included 107 fitness clubs, a connected fitness platform, a large personal training and coaching practice and digital commerce and media properties. Iro…

Every year, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, or SFIA, takes on a number of research projects designed to offer insight into the world of sports through the lens of participation, equipment sales and other metrics. But the Topline Participation Report is one of the longest-standing and most ambitious surveys the organization conducts. Each…

This year, Kevin Klipstein will celebrate 20 years at the helm of US Squash, the national governing body for the racquet sport that has been steadily growing in participation and membership over that time. While the NGB has seen remarkable success through projects such as a national training center in Philadelphia, and exposure in new markets, the …

If you’re familiar with the sports history of the city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it may be as the site of the famed “Rumble in the Jungle” boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. But in recent years, another effort is aiming to attract visitors to the Afri…

USA Swimming is known around the world as one of the powerhouse teams in the sport and this year expectations are high as always ahead of the 2024 Olympic Summer Games in Paris. This year’s Games will be the second for Chief Executive Officer Tim Hinchey but the first in which he does not have to lead the national governing body under pandemic-rela…

The first weekend in February will be an extraordinary one in Orlando, Florida, which hosts the U.S. Olympic Trials for marathon on February 3, followed the next day by the NFL Pro Bowl Games are at Camping World Stadium. The big weekend comes on the heels of news that two of the city’s recognizable sports venues will receive more than a combined $…

The Greater Columbus Sports Commission will host this year’s U.S. Figure Skating National Championships, the first time the event will be in the Ohio destination. Nationwide Arena will host over 400 athletes, coaches, and officials, plus thousands of fans over the seven-day event. The venue is within walking distance of many hotels and restaurants …

Sam Joffray is no stranger to the Super Bowl. He has been to every big game since 1997 in some capacity. Whether it was leading a bid for the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation or as a consultant or vendor, Joffray has a wealth of experience when it comes to the NFL’s crown jewel. So when Las Vegas welcomed the Raiders to the city and built worl…

Last year the editors of SportsTravel got together for a year end recap for the first time and we thought it would be a great idea to do that again. In this episode, Managing Editor Matt Traub, Associate Editor Justin Shaw and Executive Editor and Publisher Jason Gewirtz take a look at their biggest takeaways from the past year, stories that resona…

J.C. Poma spent almost 7 years with Richmond Region Tourism, working his way up from manager to director to vice president before leaving earlier this year. He didn’t venture far, as he went about 20 miles south of Richmond to the small city of Chesterfield, Virginia. Since arriving in Chesterfield, his task has been to build up the Play Chesterfie…

Flag football being named to the 2028 Olympic program earlier this year completed an impressive rise for the sport. Having the sport in the Los Angeles Games is a massive win for the NFL in broadening its global reach. On the IOC’s part, having the NFL promoting the Olympics does the same in expanding its reach and marketing to fans of a sport who …

Khalid Cannon didn’t have the most direct route to the world of Ivy League athletics, but he certainly made the most of his opportunity. Growing up on a chicken farm in Alabama, his father was incarcerated when he was just a toddler, a development that led him to sports as a youth as an outlet for the challenges his family naturally faced. Not only…

Like many elements of the incredibly fast-growing sport of pickleball, the PPA Tour does not yet have a long history, having been founded in 2018. But its growth has also been very much on the upswing. Today the tour offers 24 events nationwide and a prize purse exceeding $5 million. Carvana is on as a title sponsor and interest on all levels in th…

The Maryland Cycling Classic, a one-day competition sanctioned by USA cycling and UCI, the sport’s international federation, is the centerpiece of a full Labor Day weekend of activities throughout the Baltimore region. The event is owned and operated by the Sport and Entertainment Corporation of Maryland, of which Terry Hasseltine is the president.…

The EsportsTravel Summit is the world’s largest gathering of esports tournament and video-game event organizers and the only event focused on the travel side of the esports industry. Presented by SportsTravel and hosted by Destination Toronto, the 2023 EsportsTravel Summit was held July 12–14, 2023, in Toronto. One of the major programming sessions…

The National Council of Youth Sports has member organizations that go beyond just sports organizations. Destination marketing organizations are also involved as are groups whose missions it is to foster a great youth sports experience. But the sports organizations that belong to the National Council of Youth Sports represent some of the largest gro…

Sustainability has never been a more important factor in the sports market with events that are some of the most high-profile in the world. Tim Trefzer has led sustainability efforts at Mercedes Benz Stadium, SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park, the Super Bowl, College Football Playoff and the Atlanta Falcons among others. He also co-founded the Sustai…

The second annual TEAMS Europe included leading experts from global organizations including the National Football League, the International Olympic Committee, World Rugby, the International Tennis Federation, LaLiga, Major League Baseball and more. TEAMS—the world’s leading conference and expo for the sports-event industry—unites sport event organi…

USA Gymnastics is looking to build a national training and wellness center that will serve as the hub for the national governing body and has issued a request of expressions of interest directed at destinations and real estate developers targeting a 2026 project completion, said President and Chief Executive Officer Li Li Leung during a discussion …

You wouldn’t be much of a sports fan if you didn’t have a bucket list of events you want to see in person before you, well, kick the bucket, as it were. While plenty of people talk about such a list, few of us write it down, and even fewer of us set out to actually accomplish it. And that makes David Carter unique. Carter is a national authority on…

USA Boxing Executive Director Mike McAtee discussed the years-long process in coming with plans for a new international federation in the wake of the IOC’s expulsion of the International Boxing Association, the various issues the national governing body has had with the IBA — including fight manipulation — and more in this episode. McAtee also disc…

Dr. Kris Alexander had an upbringing not unlike many of us in that when he discovered the joy and excitement of video games, he never looked back. But unlike many of us, he has turned that passion into a successful career, not just playing the games but educating the future work force that will help the industry continue to flourish and thrive. As …

Jim Scherr was named the first chief executive officer of World Lacrosse in 2017. Prior to that, he was CEO of the United States Olympic Committee from 2003 to 2009. Scherr, who competed as a wrestler at the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games, was the first Olympian to serve in that position with the USOC. Before joining the USOC, Scherr served as executive …

Izell Reese is the chief executive officer of RCX Sports, a youth sports experiences business, running and operating leagues, camps, combines, tournaments and events. Reese has been the Executive Director of NFL Flag since October 2019, working closely with the NFL to expand the sport of flag football around the world. RCX has also recently entered…

One of two international federations in the esports world, the International Esports Federation’s mission is to further esports on a global scale. With 130 member national federations, IESF president Vlad Marinescu discusses esports on a global level, the international outlook for the industry, esports at the grassroots level around the world compa…

Houston and Dallas were recently in the spotlight as hosts for the NCAA Men's and Women's Final Fours. Each of the destinations hosted tens of thousands of visitors from out of town, providing a spotlight for Marriott, which has sponsored the NCAA for seven years through its Marriott Bonvoy program. The sports-related travel market was the first se…

Until it just recently released its new report, Sports ETA as an industry association had not surveyed its members about their compensation and salary information for about 10 years. A lot has changed since then. And, of course, a lot has changed just within the past few years coming out of the pandemic, which led to massive turnover in the industr…

For years, the Sports & Fitness industry Association has studied which sports people participate in and how often. Perhaps just as important, they also track the number of people who say they don’t participate in anything at all. For professionals in the sports-event industry, there is a tremendous amount of interesting data in the SFIA’s recently …

The NCAA Men’s Final Four, for the fourth time in its history, will be held in Houston starting with the semifinals on Saturday and the championship game on Monday. For the third time the games will be at NRG Stadium, home of the NFL’s Texans and host to many events each year. The venue will also host the 2024 College Football Playoff National Cham…

Lisa Motley has worked in the Las Vegas events and tourism industry for more than 20 years. She has held various roles in her six-plus years at Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. As senior director of sports and special events, Motley works tirelessly to bring all sizes of sporting events to Las Vegas. She was instrumental in organizing t…

One of the biggest sports in each Olympic Summer Games is swimming, which has been part of the Olympic program since 1896. But what casual fans of swimming may not realize is that the sport’s international governing body, World Aquatics, also oversees water polo, diving, artistic swimming, open water swimming and high diving throughout the world. T…

Gary Hernbroth spent 17 successful and colorful years in the luxury hotel business in sales and operations leadership, including stints with Westin, Fairmont and Park Lane Hotels. It was there, especially in Northern California where he lives now, that Hernbroth discovered the power of sports-related travel at a time when it took some convincing to…

The United States Figure Skating National championships was first held in 1914 in New Haven, Connecticut, and has been the spot for fans of the sport to see the best in the history of the sport, including Dick Button, ScottHamilton, Brian Boitano and Nathan Chen on the men’s side, to women’s sports icons such as Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hammill, Kris…

The Winter World University Games is the largest multi-sport winter event in the world, after the Olympic Winter Games. This year’s event starts January 12 and is an 11-day international festival and competition combining high-level sport with educational and cultural events, all taking place in Lake Placid, New York, and nearby towns. With more th…

This past year has been an eventful and historic one at SportsTravel as we celebrated the magazine’s 25th anniversary since its first issue. During the past year, we promoted longtime senior editor Matt Traub to the position of managing editor and hired Justin Shaw, another sports journalism veteran as our new associate editor. In this episode of t…