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 the City of Orlando and Orange 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 the Citrus Bowl or one of our other multi-purpose venues for an event or team training.

In other news, the Sports Commission plans to send representation to the upcoming SEC Men's Basketball Tournament that will be staged in New Orleans in early March. As mentioned in previous impact reports, the Sports Commission, in partnership with the Amway Center, City of Orlando and Orlando Magic, are interested in submitting a bid to host the tournament in either 2016 and/or 2017. We expect an updated RFP to be distributed by the SEC to interested communities by this summer. Over 15,000+ room nights would be generated in our community should we have the privilege to host this marquee event. Look for more updates in future impact reports.