Sporting events score big for Warwick hotels

BY JOHN HOWELL

From John Gibbons’ point of view, any event where a score is recorded is a sporting event. These include the bridge game, where the greatest physical exertion can be shuffling cards and pressing a pencil to record scores for the track and field championship cheerleaders, who brought 4,500 cheerleaders to the Rhode Island Convention Center last month.

“It was amazing,” Gibbons said of the event, which saw the majority of attendees stay in Warwick.

There’s a different take on the sport, as became clear when Gibbons, executive director of the Rhode Island Sports Commission, Beverley Wiley, Warwick Parks and Recreation director, and Mary K. Talbot sat around a table in the lobby of the Crowne Plaza last week. Talbot (President of MK Talbot Inc., a consultant to the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau) was armed with the results showing Warwick hotels and the state’s economy as big winners of all games.

According to the report, 10 of the city’s 17 hotels completed 52,973 room nights through the Sports Commission between fiscal years 2016 and 2021. Based on the forecast of $431 in spending per night, which includes renting the room, expenses for meals and transportation, shopping at shops and entertainment venues in the area, all of these athletes, their parents, friends and fans had an estimated $22.8 million US Dollar Economic Impact on the Ocean State.

Of the 11 hotels, the Crowne, which signed 20,741 room nights, had the largest economic impact at $8.9 million for the period. At the bottom of the list is Homewood Suites by Hilton with 295 nights and an impact of $127,145.

According to counts for the 2022 calendar year, a total of 29 events, including several such as the LobsterFest, an ice hockey tournament taking place in June, accounted for a total of 14,055 overnight stays over three weeks. Based on the multiplier of $431 per night, sporting events contracted by the commission had nearly $6 million in economic impact during the year.

Aside from the LobsterFest, the big June event was the Great Car Race, which saw 130 classic cars start from Rocky Point on June 18 for an eight-day, 2,300-mile race to Fargo, ND.

“It was a four-day home run,” says Gibbons. While this year’s race starts in St. Augustine, FL and ends in Colorado Springs, Gibbons said it could be back in 2024. The race won’t start here, but he’s working on making Warwick one of the stations.

Another major boost for Warwick hotels last year was the LeapFest, which attracted skydivers from all over the country.

The report does not show what percentage of total hotel room rentals are for sports contracts. Nonetheless, Gibbons recognizes the relationship between the cost of Warwick hotel rooms, which cost less than those in Providence and Newport, the availability and proximity of sports venues, and location as key factors in attracting events to Rhode Island.

Ideally, says Gibbons, event sponsors will be so comfortable with the venues the state has to offer – from ice rinks to basketball courts, indoor facilities like gyms and outdoor playing fields – that they’ll return year after year or, as is the case, book two or three events in a year.

Aside from having the facilities in place, Rhode Island’s network of connections plays an important role in making things happen. Gibbons recalls Mayor Frank Picozzi insisting that Rocky Point be the preferred location for the start of the Great Race over State House. The race organizers were impressed with the location and how the city was there to make it happen.

Gibbons tells the story of how he learned that the organization planning a major soccer tournament was not entirely happy with the out-of-state venue they had chosen. They looked at Rhode Island and found that URI had over 20 fields and ideal facilities. Gibbons called his athletic contacts at the university, who were willing to help but believed the university president would resist because the tournament was two weeks away.

He asked what had to be done to convince the President. The response was that the governor should make the event a priority. Gibbons knows Rhode Island and in a short time URI became the host.

Finding so many soccer fields in one place would be impossible today. But that doesn’t mean Gibbons is giving up. He wants to bring facilities together for major events. The ice rinks at Mickey Stevens Sports Complex may not be large enough to accommodate the crowds for an Eastern hockey tournament or precision skating competition, but they are ideal for team training and are close to hotels and Providence where the events are held become.

City Parks and Recreation Director Wiley was instrumental in planning the ice rinks, McDermott Swimming Pool and playing fields for events booked by Gibbons. She is pleased that the city will push improvements to the sports complex. A study of the ground conditions in the center, once the site of an incinerator and scrapyard, is being completed with the intention of promoting new fields and tennis and basketball courts – including pickleball courts. The improvements would be funded with a bond issue approved by voters in 2006.

“I’d love to see Mickey Stevens walk,” says Gibbons, imagining all the events he could book for Warwick.

It’s not always sporting events – bridge counts – that Gibbons wants to bring to the state. He brought 300 gymnastics coaches for their national conference. Rhode Island will also host the National Federation of High Schools Association.

According to the vita released by the SportsTravel TEAMS ’22 Conference & Expo held in Oklahoma City in October, where he was presented, Gibbon’s past and current clients include the NCAA, Ironman, Varsity Spirit, JVC Tournaments, the United States Figure Skating Association, American Contract Bridge League, USA Gymnastics and US Youth Soccer. He was a board member of the National Association of Sports Commissions and a member of its Mentoring Committee and Sports Legacy Committee. He is a graduate of the University of New Haven with a bachelor’s degree in travel and tourism management.

According to Sports Travel, sports is one of the strongest segments of the travel industry, generating 90 million room nights and $32 billion in direct spend each year. Organizers of sports events value long-term destination and hotel relationships.

“Sporting events are highly visible, their impact is easier to measure, they improve the quality of life of host city residents and can be key to economic development and the settlement of individuals and businesses,” says their website.

Gibbons likes to say he’s always looking for Rhode Island. Aside from bringing international bridge competitors to the state, he said that the landing of the National Tree Climbers competition was one of the more unusual events in Rhode Island. He didn’t need pitches, squares, or ice rinks…just trees. And he found plenty of them.

“You should have seen how fast they ran up those trees,” he says. Of course they stayed in hotels in Warwick and that made him happy.