CHARLESTON, W.Va. — After a series of successful spring and summer events, Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau President and CEO Tim Brady says they are now ready to carry that momentum into the fall–with the focus particularly being on more of the growing sports tourism industry.
Brady said a new upcoming event in October they are excited about is the USA Karate All American Classic.
“Youth sports for us is such a big market so we’re excited to have an anchor fall youth sports event inside the coliseum that’s going to draw a ton of visitation,” Brady said.
The event is set to be held at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center Friday Oct. 25 to Sunday Oct. 27. Brady said it’s projected to bring in around 800 youth athletes coming to compete for national karate titles.
He said they are also looking forward to multiple statewide high school tournaments, such as the state high school volleyball tournament, the cheer championships and of course, the newly-returned WVSSAC High School Football Championships.
Brady said after three decades, it’s exciting to once again add the SSAC Football Championships to Charleston’s sporting events repertoire.
“While it’s not fall, it’s early December, but certainly the planning will continue through fall, so yeah, just a lot of things happening, and again, it’s about carrying that momentum of summer into the fall and winter,” he said.
The football championships will be held Dec. 6-7 at the University of Charleston Stadium. Charleston will host the tournament for at least the next three years.
Brady said sports tourism already occupies a big market segment in the Capital City.
However, he said it’s not only starting to take the city by storm on a statewide level but now nationally as well– not only with the addition of the newest USA Karate event, but also recently with the huge revenue-making USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships, among others.
“The community was so enthusiastically supportive of the USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships in May, and we’ve developed a really good relationship with multiple USA sports governing bodies, we’ve had table tennis here, we’ve had volleyball here and now we’ll bring in USA Karate, so it’s about the momentum of taking the excitement of May with the cycling and just continuing to push that forward,” said Brady.
An Olympic-qualifying event for this past 2024 Paris Olympics, the cycling championships which was held in Charleston from May 14-19 brought in an estimated $4.6 million in economic impact.
The championship was chosen to take place in the city for five years, with the 2025 event slated for May 20-25.
Brady said the CVB is particularly excited about the karate classic because as a youth sporting event, it brings in a significant economic impact.
He said they really plan to capitalize on this segment of the market.
“We’re always going to look to bring in the youth events, because with the youth events as I said, you also bring in the parents, the siblings, the grandparents, so the traveling parties for youth events are always exponentially higher and so we’re always looking for big youth events to bring in,” he said.
Brady said they are confident about banking on sports tourism being a success in the area based on what it has already generated.
“You know, sports will just continue to grow in the United States and we’re just finding new ways and working hard to continue to tap into that here in the city,” said Brady.
He said hotel revenue, as well as the combined Airbnb among other vacation rentals in the Charleston area were up 19% more compared to the previous year, and that all of the sporting events being held have served as a major contributor to that.
Brady added that this only foreshadows what the arrival of the future Capital Sports Center could bring.