In terms of sports, there’s a lot going on in Lee County these days, and it’s more than spring training. I recently spoke with Jeff Mielke, Lee County Sports Development Executive Director, to hear how that sports is making an impact in our area.
We first talked about the 2023 City of Palms Classic, which celebrated 50 years of high school basketball tournaments. Mielke said that tourney continues to be a big deal for Lee County.
"So the City of Palms Classic, our best assessment, we don't have the 2023 numbers in yet, but based on 2022, which was a very similar-size tournament," said Mielke. "They fill about 3 ,000 hotel rooms. It has over a million-dollar direct visitor spending from Palms Classic on our community."
"And if people get confused by economic terminology," he continued. "you know, a million-dollar direct visitor spending looks like a million dollars coming out of a visitor's pocket to spend in our community on hotels, restaurants, rental cars, entertainment, and visiting our attractions."
Mielke discussed the Fort Myers Tip -Off, the college basketball tournament for both men and women during Thanksgiving break, and how Lee County benefits from its increasing notoriety.
"The Fort Myers tip-off specifically is unique and special to us in the fact that it's actually televised. So, not only do we get the economic impact from all of the hotels being rented and all of the restaurants being eaten out at, and all the fans for those men's and women's college teams coming to our community, but all of the men's games and a few of the women's games were broadcast on FS1 or on Fox Television on Thanksgiving Day," he said.
"This year we had a special night on Thanksgiving night where Indiana and Tennessee Women played on Fox at 6:30 at night," he recalled. "And it was the most watched women's basketball game in Fox's history."
Mielke said women’s sports are also increasing in popularity and importance in our area.
"The quality of women's sports coming into Lee County is rivaling that of the men's events that we have. So I think it's, it's really making our sports community more diverse," said Mielke. "And it's showing the girls and kids in our destination that there's some really quality sports being, being played here. And I think a lot of these girls are role models for for the students in our community."
Mielke anticipates that amateur sports will continue to be a major economic benefit to Lee County.
"We want sports tourism to be looked at as a complementary component to parks and recreation, to economic development, and then tourism in our destination, to attract business development opportunities."
To sum it up, Mielke added, "Not including spring training...All said and done, visitors leave about $72 million in our community through amateur sports."
Considering that visitors bring in over $4 point 1 billion dollars each year, according to the Lee County Visitors and Convention Bureau, the economy built around amateur sports looks to be financially important to Southwest Florida.
Karen Moore is publisher of Southwest Florida Business Today and special to WGCU.
