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Thursday, May 17, 2012
Regional Focus: January 2007
A Sporting Chance
A pro team and an NCAA tournament — what’s next for South Placer tourism?
Story by Stephanie Flores
There’s an emerging market looking for elite athletes and spectator spending that doesn’t involve the Maloofs or a new arena. Raking in $30 million in visitor spending last year, South Placer County is vying to become a major sports destination. The area has hosted LPGA tournaments, is slated to host an NCAA golf tournament next year, and has lured its first professional sports team, the Sacramento Capitals, from Citrus Heights.
In 2006, South Placer County hosted 160 sporting events from youth soccer to national BMX championships, according to Placer Valley Tourism, a nonprofit funded by hotel taxes in Roseville, Rocklin and Lincoln.
The organization has come a long way since September 2004, when Placer Valley Tourism hired Coleman Peiffer as its first sports tourism director. His initial task was to find out which sporting events were happening in the area and to identify potential business. He pinpointed 54 events in 2004; by 2006 he’d come up with 160.
“Instead of re-inventing the wheel, we needed to figure out where we were strong,” he says.
Girls’ softball and youth soccer have emerged in the past couple of years as events the region can depend on for repeat business. The California Cup soccer tournament brought an estimated 1,600 non-local participants and spectators last July. Placer Valley Tourism estimates visitors spend an average of $135 per day, which Peiffer says is a low estimate.
He says one of the largest events this year is a 12-and-under, fast-pitch softball tournament. The national championship, slated for August, should bring 1,500 players to Roseville and surrounding areas. Peiffer says the hotels in South Placer will be completely full and that Sacramento should expect some spillover. In 2005, Aurora, Colo., hosted this event and estimates visitors spent at least $5 million.
In Placer County, the leisure and hospitality industry grew 65.3 percent from 1994 to 2004, according to the California Employment Development Department. Employment projections through 2015 show this sector continuing to climb, according to the Sacramento Regional Research Institute, which estimates the fastest-growing sectors as professional services at 64 percent growth and leisure and hospitality at 40 percent.
Large resorts in the high country like the one run by the Squaw Valley Ski Corp., the fourth largest private employer in the county, play a key role in the growing industry, according to the institute, but so do the increasing number of restaurants and leisure activities in the south county.
The North Lake Tahoe Resort Association, which is also the area’s chamber of commerce, isn’t aggressively pursuing sporting events like Placer Valley Tourism is, says Andy Chapman, director of tourism for the association.
Chapman says much of his area’s tourism stems from travel for leisure and recreation, not travel by elite athletes, though the high country does host annual events such as the Western States 100-mile Endurance Run, which starts at Squaw Valley.
About 76 percent of all jobs in the North Lake Tahoe area of Placer County are in tourism or are tourism-related, Chapman says, but his association doesn’t track sports tourism.
Placer Valley Tourism doesn’t track job growth, but rather gauges its success on hotel vacancies, Peiffer says, because the transient occupancy tax funds his organization. Tax revenue increased 12 percent in 2005, the second full year of operation for the organization.
“For a place our size, an NCAA tournament is like the Super Bowl for us.”
— Coleman Peiffer, sports tourism director, Placer Valley Tourism
Transient occupancy tax in Rocklin is 8 percent and in Roseville is 6 percent, with less than 2,000 rooms combined. Lincoln is still waiting for its first hotel, a Holiday Inn Express, which is slated to open before fall 2008 with 87 rooms. The transient occupancy tax in Lincoln is set at 10 percent.
The Lake Tahoe association raises some of its money through its transient occupancy tax of 10 percent. Nearly 96 percent of hotel taxes collected by Placer County come from the Tahoe area, Chapman says. For the year ending June 30, 2006, the area brought in more than $7.3 million in hotel taxes.
Overnight visitors fund Placer Valley Tourism, but Peiffer also works to improve sporting activities for local residents. He was quick to get involved with the luring of Roseville’s first professional sports team, the Sacramento Capitals. Roseville is motivated to become a sports tourism destination, Peiffer says.
“It has the weather and increasing hotel rooms,” he says. “Also, we have double-dipping here. Leadership wants to increase the quality of life for the people who live here as well as attract visitor spending.”
The tennis team has moved three times in the past 10 years, most recently signing a five-year deal to start next season at the Westfield Galleria in Roseville. Capitals co-owner Lonnie Nielson says it’s unusual for a team to move around this much. The team played in a Macy’s parking lot at Sunrise Mall for the past five seasons. Macy’s, which owns the space, only offered a one-year renewal each year.
When Peiffer found out the Capitals were open to finding a new home, he called a meeting and started brainstorming. He gave Capitals owners the names of local businesses and potential sponsors, and Capitals management took over from there.
“In moving, you hope that you have an expanded fan base and more sponsors,” Nielson says. “I’ve done this before, so obviously in two years I’ll look really smart or I won’t look really smart.”
The Capitals kick off their season in July. For now, Nielson says he looks forward to the stability Westfield and Roseville were able to provide. “My wish of wishes would be to have a permanent stadium for tennis,” he says, “but it isn’t happening in the next five years.”
Although Roseville has landed its first professional team and scheduled around 150 events already this year, Peiffer is still looking to add 40 new sporting events each year, including a couple of national events.
He’s learned that new events may sign on but then drop out. A couple of years ago, the area lost a prestigious event, the LPGA Longs Drugs Challenge. After 2005, which brought in an estimated $2.87 million in visitor spending, the event moved to Danville to be closer to Longs Drugs Stores Corp. headquarters in Walnut Creek.
Last year Peiffer landed his first NCAA tournament, slated for May 2008. The women’s Division I, western regional golf tournament is expected to bring national media to both the region and the course, the Lincoln Hills Golf Club. Peiffer and partner Sacramento State were able to bid on the tournament because the university’s golf teams practice on the course.
“For a place our size, this is like the Super Bowl for us,” Peiffer says. “Anything NCAA in this business is a big deal and puts a small city on the map.”
