February is here which means "love" for sports is in the air!

The Score at the Shore Soccer Winter Invitational is fast approaching and TEAM SEMINOLE is gearing up for close to 100 teams to "love" all that Seminole County has to offer. February 18-20 will surely be a busy weekend for the county hotels and businesses as athletes, coaches, and spectators from across the southeast will travel to our community. Sylvan Lake Park and the Seminole Soccer Club will serve as the host venues for this year's event. We hope this event becomes an annual tradition for Seminole County, and invite you to come out to watch some ultra competitive soccer action!

In a recent planning meeting with TEAM SEMINOLE, we laid out plans for our upcoming 2012 events and shared goals and ideas for events in 2013 and beyond. We look forward to continuing the valuable working relationship between the CFSC, Seminole County CVB and Leisure Services and all of our facility partners to develop new event opportunities. With a shared mission and vision, we look forward to achieving the goals set forth for business development in the coming months and years.

Speaking of developing new business, January was a very active month for us as we sent representation to both the US Lacrosse Convention and the National Soccer Coaches Convention. In addition to the leads that were generated from these trips, we have been evaluating a new soccer event opportunity for next summer, while at the same time submitting bids to host several tennis championships in Seminole County. See below for more information on our recent activity.

As always, please do not hesitate to call should you have any questions and we look forward to working with TEAM SEMINOLE to generate more great sports activity in Seminole County.

As mentioned in last month's impact report, the Central Florida Sports Commission sent representation to two (2) national conventions.   The first was the US Lacrosse Convention which was staged in Philadelphia.  Billed as "the unofficial start to the lacrosse season," this event gathers the very best the sport has to offer, and provides the sport's largest educational opportunity, with over 5,000 coaches, officials, program administrators and exhibitors in attendance each year.  This convention provided the Sports Commission the opportunity to network with potential event organizers and coaches that might be interested in booking one of our various venues within Seminole County.

The same week, we sent staff to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Convention in Kansas City.  Billed as "The World's Largest Annual Gathering of Soccer Coaches," the NSCAA Convention typically draws approximately 4,000 coaches from our 30,000-plus members, and more than 9,000 attendees.  Like the US Lacrosse Convention, this convention provided the Sports Commission the opportunity to promote our area assets to interested parties that might want to book one of our multi-purpose venues for an event, camp or team training. 

Leads were generated at each tradeshow, and we will update you on the progress made with each opportunity in next month's impact report.