Byline: George Graham
May 10--WINTER HAVEN, Fla.--Researcher Evelyn Fine was chided at the quarterly Polk County Tourist Development Council meeting in Winter Haven on Thursday for calling sports a niche market.
The remark, which was published in The Ledger on Sunday, drew fire from several TDC members and hoteliers.
Lakeland City Commissioner Tom Shaw, a TDC member, criticized Fine for making negative comments that she knew would appear in print. 'You were speaking as our representative,' Shaw said.
'I'm not picking on Evelyn, but . . . I guess I am picking on Evelyn,' he said amid laughter.
Fine responded that she was speaking as a researcher reporting the findings of a survey conducted by her firm, Mid-Florida Marketing & Research of Ormond Beach.
In the Sunday column -- titled '5 Questions with . . .' -- Fine was asked, 'How important is sports marketing?' Her response: 'Compared to those who travel for general leisure purposes and to visit friends and relatives, travel for amateur sports events is smaller for a purpose of travel.
'In my judgment, in the larger scheme of things, that's just a niche market. When you look at the survey results, 14 percent of Florida residents say they travel for golf, 15 percent say they travel for fishing, 16 percent for Orlando attractions and just 1 percent for amateur sports.'
TDC member Nancy Guran, president of the Lakeland Innkeepers Association and manager of the Best Western Diplomat Hotel in Lakeland, challenged the survey's 1 percent finding.
In her experience and from talking to other innkeepers, sports marketing is an important source of tourist revenue, she said.
The objection was echoed by other TDC members, and Fine clarified her remark by explaining she was referring to a survey of 'what's out there for us to go out and get,' not assessing the current contribution of sports marketing to Polk's tourist industry.
Both the county's sports marketing and tourism promotion activities are funded from a 4 percent tax on tourist accommodation. Fine's remark was interpreted as a proposal to channel more of the tax revenue toward general tourism promotion and less to sports marketing.
This perception triggered a plea from hotel owner Al Cassidy to allocate more -- not less -- of the tax revenue to sports marketing.
Cassidy, president of Tamposi Williams Co., which owns the Hampton Inn and Days Inn hotels in Winter Haven, said sports events attracted by the county's marketing efforts boosted occupancy and brought his hotels a significant amount of revenue.
'Before sports marketing started (in 1992) summer was our slowest time, but in the past two or three or four years, June, July and August are among our better months,' he said. 'I would not have built the Hamptons if it hadn't been for sports marketing.'
At the same time, the money budgeted by the TDC for promoting sports events has dwindled, he said. 'It's fine to go out and get new business, but why give up what you already have?' Bing Tyus, director of activities and athletics for Polk Community College, said he runs amateur events in the sports marketing program.
'Four years ago, we started running baseball tournaments here in Polk County, and we started from nothing and grew to 26 events,' he said. 'As the events grew, it seems the money for sports marketing got smaller.'
Polk County lost the Amateur Athletic Union's 10 events to Clearwater this year because of a lack of sports marketing funds, he said.
Tyus said the economic success of Polk's sports marketing program has prompted other areas to compete for events.
Desiree Arscott, director of sales for the Holiday Inn Winter Haven, also urged the TDC to devote more, not less, money to sports marketing.
'We have 228 rooms to fill,' she said. 'We need sports events to bring people to this area. When the AAU tournament was moved to Clearwater this month, we lost $28,000 in cancellations.'
To see more of The Ledger, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.theledger.com
(c) 2002, The Ledger, Lakeland, Fla. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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