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Featured Article |
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This spring Volusia County will welcome firefighters from across the state to compete in the Florida Firefighter Games. From April 20th through May 6th, more than 3,000+ firefighters and their families will occupy Volusia County and participate in events like golf, archery, basketball, softball, flag football, beach volleyball, and much more. The Florida Firefighter Games (FFG) is a non-profit organization that has provided firefighters the opportunity to compete in over 40 sporting events for more than 30 years.
The Games began in 1972 when fire departments in Miami-Dade County ignited a friendly rivalry, challenging each other in Olympic style competitions for bragging rights. Since 1972, some departments within the State of Florida have a tradition of excelling in certain sports, like Miami-Dade in softball and Jacksonville in basketball. While the competition is tough, the main reason for the FFG is to allow firefighters who risk their lives on a daily basis to have fun, bond, and compete with their peers from across the State of Florida.
For more information on the event locations click HERE.
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A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM BRENT | |
Phil, the groundhog, has spoken and it looks like six more weeks of winter. For Volusia County, winter has seen beautiful skies and lovely weather, so thank you Phil.
 This great weather makes Volusia a popular destination for many, a prime example of this is the Rolex 24. The 50th anniversary Rolex 24 saw an increase in ticket sales of more than 20 percent from last year, with crowd estimates between 60,000 to 80,000. Based on the Rolex 24's tremendous success, we expect many more are looking forward to the return of the Daytona 500, which will take place at the end of this month. For more information on the Daytona 500, please click here.
This past month found the Central Florida Sports Commission researching new and exciting event opportunities to bring to Volusia County. Outside of our recent business development efforts, we are in major event planning mode as the Florida Firefighter Games will take over Volusia County in April. The Firefighter Games which will bring thousands of firefighters from across the State of Florida to the area to compete in a series of events. For more information on the Games, please see the Featured Article section of this month's impact report. Other events on the horizon are the Atlantic Sun Women's Golf Championships which will be staged in New Smyrna Beach, along with the Northeast Conference Women's and Men's Golf Championship which will be conducted in Daytona Beach at LPGA International.
 In other news, the Ocean Center has also been busy this year by hosting several large events. On February 3rd - 5th, the Ocean Center and several other area sports venues welcomed 170 youth volleyball teams from the eastern United States as the Team Florida Indoor HP Boys/Girls All Star Tryouts, Daytona Beach 100 Tour of Champions and Boy's Florida Fest came to Daytona Beach. These events have called Daytona home for several years and we expect their return to our community for 2014 and beyond!
Thank you for your continued support as we market Volusia County as a world class sports destination! |
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Best Regards,
Brent Nelson
Interim President/CEO
Central Florida Sports Commission |
ECONOMIC IMPACT |
Month of December, 2011 Hotel Room Nights - 900 Tax Recovery - $6,289 Economic Impact - $268,361 Number of Participants - 325 Number of Spectators - 734 Number of Events - 2 2011 Totals Hotel Room Nights - 19,025 Tax Recovery - $150,472 Economic Impact - $7,784,369.43 Number of Participants - 7,466 Number of Spectators - 8,794 Number of Events- 24 |
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| IN THE PIPELINE |
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 Volusia County.
The same week, we sent staff, along with the National Training Center, 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.
In addition, the Sports Commission has been researching the opportunity to potentially host a 2012 Big Shots Basketball Showcase. Big Shots have developed a reputation of providing basketball players the opportunity to compete in front of primetime national recruiting services and hundreds of college coaches. The Showcase typically brings more than 30 premier youth basketball teams from across the East Coast together for two (2) days of intense competition. Embry Riddle University, Daytona State College and Mainland High School are several of the venues under consideration for this inaugural event. Please stay tuned for more information on this event opportunity. |
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| WINS & LOSSES
(Through February 1st)
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- Bids Submitted - 2
- Wins- 0
- Losses- 1
The Sports Commission recently submitted a proposal for the opportunity to stage the 2012 USA Ultimate Frisbee Grand Masters Open and Masters Women's Championships. This event provides national level competition for Frisbee players over 40 and women players over 30. After serious consideration, USA Frisbee has decided to take the event to Minnesota in 2012, but is considering Volusia County for the 2013 tournament. Stay tuned!
 In other news, the Sports Commission recently submitted a proposal to the Atlantic Sun Conference to host their 2013 Women's Golf Championship at Venetian Bay in New Smyrna Beach. This tournament would bring back 10 women's collegiate golf teams from the southeast to Volusia County in April of 2013. The tournament will be a four (4) day event, consisting of one (1) practice round and three (3) competition rounds. In fact, we are staging this same event in New Smyrna Beach this coming April.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
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Palmer Chiropractic Clinics Healthy Heart 1 mile, 5k, 10k
February 18, All Day
City Center Amphitheater, Port Orange, Fl
www.active.com
2012 Winter Season
February 23, 12pm
Dewey Boster Soccer Complex, Enterprise, FL
http://www.deltona6v6.com
East Central Florida Regional Rail Trail, Ribbon Cutting
February 25, 10am
Providence Blvd., City of Deltona
http://volusia.org/trails/springtospring.htm
Bethune Cookman University vs. Norfolk State Men's and Women's Basketball
February 25, 2pm
Moore Gymnasium
www.cookman.edu
Daytona 500
February 26
Daytona International Speedway
www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com |
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| COMMUNITY PROFILE | |
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Photo courtesy: Orlando Sentinel |
February the 1st was a big day for Volusia County, especially for Leonard Williams, the highly recruited defensive end from Mainland High School. It was College Football National Signing Day, the first time that high school student athletes could officially sign to the colleges of their choice. After much deliberation, the 6-foot-5, 260 pound Williams finalized his decision to attend the University of Southern California over the Florida Gators. Williams' may have been the most sought after Volusia student athlete, but there were several others that also signed to big time schools.
While the list will continue to grow, here are the student athletes that have signed: Paxton Lynch to Memphis, Ryan Rodwell to Georgia Tech, James Ward to Wake Forest, Tevin Gordon to Bethune-Cookman, Taylor Dunn to Stetson, Moroa White to Jacksonville University, Maxwell Robinson, Sean Guy, and Davis Taylor to Robert Morris University to name a few.
These student athletes have worked hard on and off of the field to earn the privilege of playing collegiate football. Congratulations to you all and best of luck in your college career! |
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