Sports Partnerships
Give a Competitive Edge

Champaign shares its strategy for partnering with the local convention and
visitors bureau to fund and present major sports events

BY JOE DeLUCE. CPRP AND AMY PIPER

In order for park districts to continue to offer quality programs and exciting special events, partnering with other agencies is no longer an elective. It is a requirement. You must seek out partners for additional resources, volunteers and revenues.

Toward that end, the Champaign Park District and the Champaign- Urbana Convention and Visitors Bureau have joined forces to create a variety of events in addition to a Sports and Events Roundtable, which convenes once every other month. The convention and visitors bureau (CVB) was considering creating a sports commission to assist in developing and planning sports events in Champaign-Urbana, but realized that the funding was not available to create a full-time commission. Thus, the Sports and Events Roundtable was created to fill the gap.

Many times sport commissions overlook the key people who are actually putting on sporting and special events. However, anyone that is involved in planning, developing, hosting, or sponsoring any sports or special events in Champaign- Urbana is invited to attend the roundtable meetings. The meetings generally last one-and-a-half hours and take place at various hotels, sports facilities, park district and University of Illinois facilities.

The primary goals of the Sports and Events Roundtable are: • To provide opportunities to network and create partnerships with others who produce sports and special events. • To create and support new sporting and special events. • To enhance and improve existing sporting and special events.

A scene from the inline skating competition at the Champaign-Urbana "Shampoo Banana Ultimate Sports Weekend." Photograph by Amanda Roesch.

The Sports and Events Roundtable also provides attendees an opportunity to promote their upcoming events and gain ideas regarding how they can make their events even better. Training workshops on creating sponsor- ships, publicizing events in the newspaper, and working with the local police department have been offered over the past year. The best part about the meeting is that there is no cost involved to those who attend, and lunch is provided by the hosting agency or company. More than 40 individuals attend each meeting including representatives from the local park districts, the University of Illinois, local hotels, the Boys and Girls Club, the YMCA, convention and visitors bureau staff and local companies that offer their services to the attendees (e.g., T-shirt designers, soft drink providers and area restaurants).

An example of the positive results of the Sports and Events Roundtable was the support of the attendees for the IHSA Football Championships held in Champaign last November. The CVB staff was able to tap the roundtable attendees to assist in making the IHSA Football Championships the most successful ever. Members of the roundtable also assisted with the IHSAWresding Championships held in the community in February 2000.

The attendees have commented on the success of the meetings and have really enjoyed the opportunities to create new partnerships. The Champaign Park District has been involved in several of these partnerships. In 1999 the park district, the CVB, Parkland College and the local Ultimate Frisbee Club created "The Ultimate Sports Weekend," which consisted of a vari-

10 / Illinois Parks and Recreation

SPORTS PARTNERSHIPS GIVE A COMPETITIVE EDGE

ety of events compacted into one exciting weekend. The event included

an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament, a Skatefest (skateboarding and inline skating), master's track and field events, a softball tournament, disc golf exhibition, food and music. A local hotel served as the host hotel and provided a kickoff party the night before the event opened. To draw more people to the event we called it the "Shampoo-Banana Ultimate Sports Weekend" (a tradeoff of Champaign-Urbana) and awarded all participants a shampoo sample and a banana.

The benefit of supporting and encouraging new special events is clear to the CVB, so they offer grants for local first-time events. The Ultimate Sports Weekend was promoted to potential participants outside of Champaign-Urbana area and, thus, the CVB—which is funded by the hotel/motel tax—awarded the park district more than $4,000 for promotion and marketing. Local hotels benefited from the participants who came to town and the district will seek new grants for the 2000 event.

The success of the Ultimate Sports Weekend led to the creation of another new event for the community: the Illini Holiday Basketball Tournament. The park district joined with the CVB, Parkland College and a local fifth- and sixth-grade traveling basketball team to create a new, competitive basketball tournament. The CVB again supported this event with a grant for $2,500 that was used to attract teams from throughout the state of Illinois. Twenty-five teams registered for the two-day tournament. Parkland Community College was used for the championship games and a park district gym hosted a basketball festival on Saturday night which included a slam-dunk contest, a three-point contest, a Pepsi Hot Shot Contest, food and music. The fifth and sixth graders had a great time at the event and the winners each received an autographed basketball signed by Lon Kruger, then the head coach of the University of Illinois' men's basketball team.

The CVB has assisted the park district with many other events. It provided a grant to promote the park district's ASA Softball Tournaments and list park district events in the quarterly brochures. The park district's Olympic Tribute was also featured in the CVB marketing brochures.

The partnership between the Champaign Park District and the Champaign-Urbana Convention and Visitors Bureau has been very beneficial to both agencies and the future of continuing the partnership promises many new and exciting events. If your community does not offer a sports commission, you might want to take the initiative to create one. Or, see whether your commission would be interested in offering a sports and events roundtable in addition to the commission, to improve existing sports and special events, and create opportunities for partnerships in planning and developing new sports and sports events. 

JOE DeLUCE, CPRP
is the director or recreation for the Champaign Park District. He also served as the executive director lor the Mocon [Georgia] Sports Commission. He can be reached at 217.398.2550 or jdeluce@lcu-online.com.

AMY PIPER
is a recent graduate of the University of Illinois in the Department of leisure Studies with a master's degree in Recreation Administration. She currently is a pool manager and can be reached al the Champaign Pork District, 217.3W.2550.

BOTTOM LINE: Why the Partnership Works • Trust! Both agencies know that other will do whatever it takes to produce a quality event • Open communication and keeping everyone updated on the events • Both partners do what they say they will do • Being creative and trying new sports and special events • Working together throughout the year, not just when a grant or event is available —Joe Deluce, CPRP

July/August 2000 ¦ 11