The NCAA Division I Football Championship is one of the high-profile games that has been attracted to the city of Frisco from elsewhere in the United States.[/caption]Sports has taken over tourism news in Frisco the past few months. Since May, three new tournaments coming to the city have been announced.
Conference USA’s men’s and women’s basketball championships will be held at The Ford Center at The Star in both 2018 and 2019. Once known as the Miami Bowl, the Frisco Bowl will bring more college football to Toyota Stadium this December. And Lone Star Conference’s men’s and women’s basketball championships will be held at Dr Pepper Arena for at least two years beginning in 2018.
Each event is expected to generate millions of dollars in economic impact for the city and the region, according to the Frisco Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Efforts to attract sporting events to Frisco are not new to the CVB, but the announcements are coming out close together after months of work, CVB Executive Director Marla Roe said.
Tournaments typically go up for bid every two years, and the process to prepare a bid for an event can take six to nine months, said Josh Dill, director of sports and events for the CVB.
“These bids take a long time to put together, especially the big, high-profile stuff,” he said.
Adding to its staff over the past few years has helped with the bidding process, because it allows some staff members to handle sporting events on game day while others can continue bidding on potential events, Dill said.
Efforts from Frisco’s current sports groups have also helped attract new events. For example, The Ford Center is designed to be a practice facility and a game-day venue for football, but the field can be altered to accommodate other events, such as the addition of basketball courts for the Conference USA championships.
“It’s expensive to put down two courts in a facility, and it’s expensive to build seating for all of those things,” Dill said. “The Cowboys had the buying power and the relationships in those areas to make it really cost-effective for Conference USA.”
Hunt Sports Group has also been actively pursuing a bowl game to bring to Toyota Stadium for some time, said Dan Hunt, Hunt Sports Group vice president. Toyota Stadium has hosted the NCAA Division I Football Championship game for several years, and the stadium is undergoing renovations that include upgrading the locker rooms to accommodate for football teams.
“With a sporting event, it all starts with the venue,” said Ryan Callison, director of marketing and communications for the CVB. “There are a lot of great venues across the country that don’t have tenants like we do. The partners that we have with all of our professional teams, they’re interested in what we’re doing, and they bring a level of excitement and credibility to any kind of bid that we put forth.”
