ROCK HILL --
Local tourism officials will be all smiles today when the ESPN cameras start rolling at Rock Hill's District Three Stadium.
Smiles because every time there is a commercial break, they are counting on the announcers to mention Rock Hill before the football resumes.
It amounts to a seven-hour commercial for the city - exposure, they say, that is priceless.
Yet it's just icing on the cake for their efforts, capping a summer season that has seen more tournaments, more teams, more parents and - most importantly - more dollars come to Rock Hill and York County.
So much so that officials are predicting this year's total direct economic impact should easily top $10 million - up at least $1.5 million over last year.
It is an effort that requires teamwork, plenty of volunteers, great facilities and large doses of Southern hospitality. It has been years in the making, and the result is a bit of fame. Other areas are now looking to Rock Hill to see how sports tourism is done.
While it is a year-round effort, summer is usually the time for the premier events such as national softball and soccer tournaments.
Softball and Rock Hill means Cherry Park. The complex and the National Softball Association's World Series put the city on the sports tourism map. Cherry Park has hosted more than 50 national World Series since it opened in 1985 as a way to fight a declining economy caused by local mill closures.
In 2003 the softball association inducted the park into its hall of fame - one of two softball complexes so honored.
This summer's NSA Girls Fastpitch World Series attracted 200 teams and resulted in an economic boost of $3.5 million. The statistic is based on interviews conducted by the Rock Hill Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism. Workers asked visitors where they were staying, where they were eating and where they were shopping.
The statistic measures dollars out of someone's pockets. It does not consider how those dollars are multiplied in the community. Typically economic investment is measured not only in investment but how that investment triggers other spending in a community.
The statistic does not include what it cost the city or its partners to be the host for an event. Using volunteer labor, however, helps contain costs.
The workers also asked visitors to rate their experience in Rock Hill. Rock Hill prides itself on having a Disney-like mentality.
"We tell people who want to come here that they can be a big fish in a small pond," said Robert Thomas, sports marketing coordinator for the Rock Hill/York County Convention and Visitors Bureau. "And then we roll out the red carpet."
A Disney-like mentality also means having well-maintained ball fields, clean bathrooms and good signage so people don't get lost.
"We put a premium on cleanliness," said Ed Thompson, director of the city's Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.
"The worst thing you can do is have someone come to your community and get lost," Thomas said.
Other marquee events this spring and summer included:
Catawba Classic, a lacrosse tournament sponsored by the Fort Mill Lacrosse Club
Big Shots Basketball Tournament
Kick-It 3-on-3 regional soccer tournament - the fourth time Rock Hill has hosted
A mid-Atlantic paintball tournament, the fifth straight year it has come to the Paintball Sports Park on East Main Street
The economic impact of these events is usually about $500,000, Thomas said. The lacrosse tournament's economic impact was $600,000, said Mark Sexton, the tourism administrator for the city's Parks, Recreation and Tourism department. There are plans to make the Catawba Classic an annual event.
And these are just the major tournaments. Schedules for the Manchester Meadows Soccer Complex, the city's tennis center and Cherry Park list events almost every weekend from February to October. And, as Thompson is quick to point out, the parks are also available for use by residents at other times.
In 2009, the last year for which there are complete numbers, tourism officials said more than 70,000 people came for tournaments - 90 percent of them from outside Rock Hill. The direct economic impact was $9.6 million, almost twice the Parks, Recreation and Tourism department's budget.
