Advertisement

Header Utility Menu

  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Events

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram Get Our App

  • Login

Virginia Business

Mobile Menu

  • Issues
  • Industries
    • Banking/Finances
    • Law
    • Real Estate
    • Economic Development
    • Education
    • Energy/Green
    • Federal Contracting
    • Government
    • Healthcare
    • Hotels/Tourism
    • Insurance
    • Ports/Trade
    • Small Business
    • Startups
    • Technology
    • Transportation
  • Regions
    • Central Virginia
    • Eastern Virginia
    • Northern Virginia
    • Roanoke/New River Valley
    • Shenandoah Valley
    • Southern Virginia
    • Southwest Virginia
  • Reports
    • Best Places to Work
    • Business Person of the Year
    • CEO Pay
    • COVID-19
    • Generous Virginians Project
    • Legal Elite
    • Most Influential Virginians
    • Maritime Guide
    • Site Locator
    • The Big Book
    • Virginia CFO Awards
  • Company News
    • For the Record
    • People
  • Opinion
  • Lists
  • Awards/Events
    • 2022 Virginia Business Political Roundtable
    • Women in Leadership
    • Diversity Leadership Series
    • Virginia 500
    • Legal Elite
    • CFO Awards
    • Big Book of Lists
    • 100 People To Meet
    • Best Places To Work
  • Virginia 500
    • Read The Issue
    • Power Up Virginia 500
    • Buy an award plaque
    • Suggest execs for 2023

Advertisement

Header Primary Menu

  • Issues
    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • Issues Archive
  • Industries
    • Banking/Finances
    • Law
    • Real Estate
    • Economic Development
    • Education
    • Energy/Green
    • Federal Contracting
    • Government
    • Healthcare
    • Hotels/Tourism
    • Insurance
    • Ports/Trade
    • Small Business
    • Startups
    • Technology
    • Transportation
  • Regions
    • Central Virginia
    • Eastern Virginia
    • Northern Virginia
    • Roanoke/New River Valley
    • Shenandoah Valley
    • Southern Virginia
    • Southwest Virginia
  • Reports
    • Best Places to Work
    • Business Person of the Year
    • CEO Pay
    • COVID-19
    • Generous Virginians Project
    • Legal Elite
    • Most Influential Virginians
    • Maritime Guide
    • Site Locator
    • The Big Book
    • Virginia CFO Awards
  • Company News
    • For the Record
    • People
  • Opinion
  • Lists
  • Awards/Events
    • 2022 Virginia Business Political Roundtable
    • Women in Leadership
    • Diversity Leadership Series
    • Virginia 500
    • Legal Elite
    • CFO Awards
    • Big Book of Lists
    • 100 People To Meet
    • Best Places To Work
  • Virginia 500
    • Read The Issue
    • Power Up Virginia 500
    • Buy an award plaque
    • Suggest execs for 2023

Home News Regions A whole new ball game in Va. Beach

A whole new ball game in Va. Beach

Published October 27, 2020 by Robert McCabe

The new Virginia Beach Sports Center offers a 200-meter, hydraulically banked track.
The new Virginia Beach Sports Center offers a 200-meter, hydraulically banked track.

Attention, athletic leagues: The $68 million, 285,000-square-foot Virginia Beach Sports Center is open for business.

“We’re ready to get this party started,” says Nancy Helman, the city’s director of sports marketing, who celebrated the facility’s Oct. 1 debut with Mayor Bobby Dyer and other city officials.

The cavernous structure has 12 basketball courts, 24 volleyball courts, nine field-hockey courts and a 200-meter, hydraulically banked track (which can control the track’s height) with permanent seating for 5,000 spectators, among many other features.

While not big enough to host an NCAA basketball tournament game, it would be a good fit for the NCAA  indoor track-and-field championship, Helman says.

Dyer says the new center will help the city morph into more of a year-round tourist destination. Though competition wasn’t expected to start in earnest until November, the center is already in demand.

“I mean, my phone rings off the hook,” says Amber Giancola, the facility’s general manager.

The center has already booked 54 events for its first year, 39 of them new to the local market, Dyer says.

While current revenue projections were unavailable, a 2016 report provided by the city estimated that the center could generate more than $630,000 annually in city tax revenue.

In 2019, sports tourism nationwide generated $45.1 billion in spending, according to a July 2020 report for the Cincinnati-based Sports Events & Tourism Association, or SportsETA, which speaks for the industry.

That, of course, was before COVID-19.

The SportsETA report projected that as of December, at least 75 million fewer people will have traveled to sports events across the nation since March, compared with the same period a year earlier, resulting in a $20 billion loss in direct spending in 2020.

Al Kidd, SportsETA’s president and CEO, is very familiar with Virginia Beach’s new facility and has visited there.

“I’m really excited about what you guys have,” he says, noting that the facility’s strengths include a state-of-the-art track and a convenient mid-Atlantic location.

This, however, is tempered by the cloud posed by the coronavirus, he adds. Helman says the center will have an array of virus-mitigation measures specific to each event.

“The health and safety of the athletes and fans and families that come to visit in Virginia Beach is obviously the top priority,” she says.

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.

Related Stories

Virginia Business logo

Colonial Williamsburg to reopen on limited basis June 14

Some of its historic sites will open at limited capacities June 14

Gov. Ralph Northam said during his Tuesday press conference that he would not ease restrictions in the Eastern Virginia region prior to Labor Day.

Eastern Va. restrictions to remain through Labor Day weekend

Governor wants to avoid repeat of Memorial Day, July 4th spikes

Virginia Business logo

Newport News, Hampton launch Peninsula Cares Act Fund

$1.5M revolving loan program open to local businesses

Trending

13th annual Best Places to Work

Magical moments

Cox expands Myers’ role to East Coast

Morrissey’s Petersburg casino bill fails in Senate Finance

Danville pharma startup announces $6.1M expansion

Sponsored Stories

Working at Pinnacle Financial Partners

What Logistics issues will have the biggest impact on you in 2023?

In the New Year, Aim for Better Cybersecurity

4 innovative ways to create capacity

WHERE IS THE SUPPLY CHAIN WHEN YOU NEED IT?

P.A.I.N.T. Your Financial Mountain

5 Benefits of Treasury Management Services from Atlantic Union Bank

Blazing trails in the digital landscape

Advertisement

Advertisement

Trending

13th annual Best Places to Work

Magical moments

Cox expands Myers’ role to East Coast

Morrissey’s Petersburg casino bill fails in Senate Finance

Danville pharma startup announces $6.1M expansion

Sponsored Stories

Working at Pinnacle Financial Partners

What Logistics issues will have the biggest impact on you in 2023?

In the New Year, Aim for Better Cybersecurity

4 innovative ways to create capacity

WHERE IS THE SUPPLY CHAIN WHEN YOU NEED IT?

P.A.I.N.T. Your Financial Mountain

5 Benefits of Treasury Management Services from Atlantic Union Bank

Blazing trails in the digital landscape

Get Virginia Business directly on your tablet or in your mailbox!

Subscribe to Virginia Business

Advertisement

Advertisement

Footer Primary Menu

  • virginiabusiness.com
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Footer Secondary Menu

  • Industries
  • Regions
  • Reports
  • Company News
  • Events

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Sign Up

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram Get Our App

Privacy Policy Cookie Policy

Footer Utility Menu

Copyright © 2023 Virginia Business. All rights reserved.

Site Maintained by TechArk