Only one athlete will break the tape at the finish line when World Triathlon Corp.’s global series of Ironman 70.3 events rolls into Rhode Island on July 13. But hotel managers, restaurateurs and tourism officials might consider themselves the real winners of the marquee sports competition.
An estimated 2,000 athletes from across the country and at least 10 foreign countries are expected to compete in the Ironman event, which will begin with a 1.2-mile swim at Narragansett’s Roger Wheeler Beach, wend its way through the state with a 56-mile bicycle ride and finish at the Statehouse following a half-marathon through the streets of Providence.
In all, as many as 5,000 visitors are expected to attend the event, booking an estimated 6,500 room nights at local hotels, said John Gibbons, director of national sports accounts at the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau (PWCVB).
The Ironman race in July is among the higher-profile sports events that tourism officials have lured to Providence in recent years, as part of a strategy to make the city – and the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in particular – a major destination for sporting events.
Starting Feb. 20, U.S. Figure Skating’s Synchronized Skating Championship will be held at the Dunk. The skating event, which was slated to be held at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, Mass., before local tourism officials stepped in with their own bid, is expected to generate at least 6,000 room nights at local hotels.
On May 4, the inaugural Cox Providence Road Races is expected to draw up to 4,000 competitors. The one-day marathon, half-marathon and 5K event is owned by Providence-based Eident Sports Marketing, a firm that is also a local event manager for the Ironman competition and works closely with the PWCVB and the R.I. Sports Council to woo and stage sporting events in the state.
And in March 2010, the Dunkin’ Donuts Center will be a regional host for the first two rounds of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Men’s Basketball Championship – one of the most anticipated sporting events in the country.
Televised competitions like the NCAA’s “March Madness” tournament and the Synchronized Skating Championship will put Providence on a national stage, helping efforts to brand the Dunkin’ Donuts Center as a premier site for sporting events, Gibbons said.
“With all the major renovations that have been going on inside the Dunk it’s going to be a major opportunity for us to showcase the building on a national level, so we’re very excited about that,” he said.
But even as they work to bring high-profile, national sports events to the city, tourism officials are also focusing on attracting smaller, regional competitions for children and high school athletes.
Though they don’t receive television coverage or grab newspaper headlines, such events as the Athletic Championship – a regional cheerleading competition that was held at the Dunk Feb. 2 – 3 – generated an estimated 1,000 room nights at local hotels, Gibbons said.
Another example of a low-key, youth sports tournament that nevertheless generates surprising revenues for the local tourism industry is the John W. Kennedy Memorial Hockey Tournament, which was recently held at small rinks throughout the state and drew several thousand visitors from across the United States and Canada, generating more than 3,000 room nights at hotels, Gibbons said.
And unlike the NCAA tournament and other national sports events, most youth tournaments return to the state every year to stage their competitions, Gibbons said.
“I like to go out and try to find events that are going to come in year after year,” he said. “That’s the type of business we like to have,” he said. “We can count on it generally going forward, and it’s very important to the hotel community, the restaurant community and to the economic impact of this industry.”
The increased number of both national sports events and smaller regional ones that are choosing to stage their competitions in Providence is also the result of a significant investment being made to increase the number of area hotel rooms and renovate and expand the Dunk and the R.I. Convention Center, Gibbons said.
Steve Meckfessel, director of events for Ironman 70.3, said Providence was an ideal city to stage the competition from both a logistical and a media standpoint.
“The convention center, we’re using that for part of our event,” Meckfessel said. “The positioning of the hotels and the restaurants and the shopping are all centralized just perfectly for us.
“Two-and-a-half people per [competitor] travel to these destinations, and so we’ve really got to provide activities and things for the family members to do while mom or dad is doing the race. And Providence has all those elements.” •
