Hi, I'm Jeff Rea, your host for Economic Outlook.

Welcome to our show.

We're back in the studio today for another great show.

We hope you make plans each week to join us as we discuss the region's most important economic development initiatives with a panel of experts.

The $15 billion sports travel industry is impacting communities across the country, and our region is winning big on that.

Travel with youth sports being the fastest growing sector of visitors coming to the region.

We'll take a closer look at the impact of those travelers coming up on economic outlook.

According to the Sports Events and Tourism Association, there was $39.7 billion in amateur and youth sports, tourism, direct spending in 2021, generating a total economic impact of more than 91 billion.

Our region played a critical role in those numbers and has become a popular destination for youth sports events.

Joining me today to take a closer look at the impact of youth sports on tourism in our area are Jeff Jarnecke, the executive director of Visit South Bend Mishawaka and Mike McNeill, the programing and instruction manager at the Compton Family Ice Arena and Notre Dame Athletics.

Guys, thanks for joining me this morning.

So we're going to talk sports tourism.

Just first before we start, though, Jeff talk a little bit about your job so people aren't familiar with business up in Mishawaka.

What do you do?

Yeah, we're part of the South Bend Regional Chamber, a division within that organization.

And it's our job then to market all the amenities, the attractions, the hotels within Saint Joseph County.

So we work with our partners in the city of South Bend the city of Mishawaka and New Carlisle, down to Lakeville and throughout, to not only bring visitors here from a leisure perspective, but attract business in the forms of conventions, meetings, events and youth sports as part of it.

And so six person staff is dedicated to working with our partners and the other attractions within the area to attract that business day in and day out.

Great.

And Mike, this coming your way for a second.

So talk a little about your role, what you're doing at Notre Dame and at the Compton Family Ice Arena.

Sure.

Thank you.

Programing and Instruction Manager.

So really, I schedule the facility.

Anything that is going to be on the ice on either one of our our two rinks would kind of come through our office.

And then the second component is our staff also gets to get on the ice with our local high school players, with our local youth hockey players, and provide additional instruction.

Great.

So, Mike, I'm going to stay with you for a second.

So you grew up in the area for the most part and and participated in sports as a as a youngster.

Talk a little bit about maybe the youth sports environment here locally and what you as a family or whatever had to do.

My guess as you did a little bit of traveling on your own as well for in the youth sports for sure.

Yeah, very, very lucky.

Kind of moved to the area.

I was two and a half years old.

My dad came to be an assistant hockey coach, so I played a lot of baseball, played a lot of hockey, played a lot of football growing up.

And it was a huge part.

Whether it was in grade school.

Certainly went to St Joe high school, played all three sports and still in my mind, encourage young athletes to participate in multiple sports, get to work with and get to know a different group of friends, different coaches.

And I certainly think there's value in playing different sports and kind of having an off season, I guess I would say.

But yeah, I mean it was a big part of my life.

I grew up had four sisters and a brother, so a very active sport family.

And yeah, every once in a while we would be able to travel.

So that was great.

Sounds good.

Jeff let's come back your way.

And so we teased a little bit sort of big numbers in youth sports.

Everything I read and hear about its impact.

Just talk about maybe generally the the state of youth sports in our area and its impact on tourism.

Tell us how we're doing in that space.

You know, the short of it is youth sports in Saint Joseph County win and they went big.

They propelled us and really helped us through pandemic.

They've done the same during the recession and the facilities that we have within Saint Joseph County work really well in terms of not only our geography and the ability to attract teams out of Chicago, out of Detroit, out of Indianapolis.

It's almost that central meeting point.

But then once they're here, it's affordable to stay, it's affordable to shop, it's affordable to eat.

And so we see that year in and year out.

And so whether it's ice hockey and working with our partners at Notre Dame and Compton Family Ice Arena to the ice box to the proposed Mishawaka Fieldhouse, youth sports is a significant contributor of room nights and economic impact each and every year within Saint Joseph County.

Jeff stay with you for a second because because I think we we think of youth sports.

Talk a little about the maybe the variety of youth sports.

Obviously, I think hockey is the the big driver.

But but what are some of the others that that come to our area right now.

Yeah.

And it's not even specific to hockey, although that might be the winner that we have here.

So we utilize and work with our partners down at Newton Park in Lakeville who host soccer and football and baseball and softball and Quidditch is one of the newer sports that and although it has a new name they go by, I think more will recognize Quidditch.

But lacrosse, rugby so many others that come through.

We're working on broom ball as a future event that might come here.

And then even this summer, outside of the more traditional field of play, we're hosting the International Jugglers Association as well and the AYOP in terms of the for the time group that comes to town each and every year as well.

And so no shortage of sports, no shortage of those that are willing to travel.

But perhaps where we do have the shortage and the opportunity before us within the county, for those additional facilities to either add or to our capacity and our ability to host those events or maybe an absence of the facility altogether that might bring a different book of business to the county and a different experience as well.

Mike come back to your role, is it really two hats, right?

So being on campus, you've got a top ranked hockey program at the University of Notre Dame year in and year out.

And but you also are hosting tournament action.

So talk a little bit maybe the balance, balancing those things that kind of the needs of the university and its students, but also the the needs of the community there, too.

Well, thankfully, we start with a fantastic facility, two sheets of ice.

And we basically we work directly and first with Notre Dame Hockey and we make sure that all their practices, all their games are are properly scheduled.

And then after that, we work with local youth hockey, high school hockey, and then certainly our students on campus.

And then that final piece is working with the tournament providers who, for example, this weekend we have 18, ten new teams coming in starting tomorrow morning at 8:00.

And and then that's kind of the way we balance out our facility.

We work with a couple different tournament providers.

We've had very success with them since day one when our facility opened in 2011.

And, you know, looking into next season, our schedule looks very solid with a bunch of tournaments as well.

And maybe just numbers.

So how many weekends a year are there people here playing in a hockey tournament?

So I was looking into our next year, you know, out of, let's call it 36 possible weekends where we could have tournaments because we don't do week tournaments on weekends of Notre Dame football holidays.

So 36 total weekends, 28 of those.

Right now we have tournaments and then six of the ones that are left are kind of in July and August, which typically is not a real strong tournament time.

I will say we are looking at some more summer activities.

We are looking at what can we do on a concrete floor when we have ice out in one of our facilities?

But yeah, I mean we're really excited how it's looking next year.

We kind of slowly have brought a couple new tournament users in and we've had very good success with them.

Great.

Jeff, let's talk some nuts and bolts just about even, you know, so what Mike's talking about with these the number of tournaments that are hosting there, again, you talk about, you know, fill in hotel rooms and having folks that you want them to eat and eat in our restaurants and stay in our hotels and stuff.

So talk a little about the the number of hotel rooms you need to fill, what things like hockey tournaments are doing to help drive that traffic within Saint Joseph, County 54 hotels which represent about 5300 hotel rooms.

And so we work to fill those.

But the unique part, especially in terms of the level and extent of it, are those private residences that are available for rent on a given weekend through VRBO or Airbnb or whatever the outlet may be.

And so there's just an incredible amount of inventory room that we're working to fill each and every weekend and through sports.

In a given year, we're able to book more than 85 events.

The majority of those end up being, or at least through the room night side of it and of being hockey related.

So those are about 34,000 room nights in a given year are coming from hockey and then another 6 to 8000 are coming through other sports along the way.

And so that impact total is about 21, $22 million that are generated on a given year through sporting events.

And so that impact the ability, the opportunity around that is just incredible.

And so as we look at that on a national scene, this is all just regionally based right now.

So you bring in a Mishawaka fieldhouse that will open next year, you bring in additional sheets of ice you have it's pickleball or additional tennis courts or additional soccer fields.

Those opportunities pay dividends because the number of kids, which is estimated to be about 60% of the population of ages 6 to 17 play sports doesn't mean that they necessarily travel.

That mean they're playing at the highest level doesn't mean that they're necessarily going to go to college, but they're playing youth sports.

And so that market, that ability of something that's almost recession proof, that's almost pandemic proof that unfortunately we've learned both along the way.

But it's a resilient market.

It's one that's ripe of opportunity and is continue to pay dividends for our county Mike come your way.

So the allure of campus, you know, for example, it's a bucket list kind of item for so many people.

So my guess is there's a little bit of, you know, a world class facility that we want to use, but we also want a chance to plug in to campus.

Talk about how how you balance sort of that campus interaction as well.

What yeah, it does it starts with the facility, but then it also includes having the ice box, which is 10 minutes away.

So four sheets of ice within 10 minutes.

I think then it includes your hotel partners who, you know, the last 11 years we've been doing this.

It's just a it's a really good, solid relationship.

And I think we've done a much better job kind of handling.

Let's say, the hockey families and finding ways to make their stays at hotels even that much better.

So then when they do get on campus.

Yes.

Are there tours this weekend?

You know, can we direct them to the Eck Center?

How about going and having a meal at a dining hall certain times earlier in the season?

There's football stadium tours available, which were hugely successful this past year.

So we kind of other activities, other sports.

So like the kids coming in this weekend, they know there's a basketball game on Saturday at 12 and I think it's against Louisville, that kind of thing.

So while they're here, yes, they're going to play X amount of hockey games.

But here are other activities.

Here are other things to do.

Either on campus or in our city.

Guys are going to take a quick break here in the studio.

We're going out into the field.

George Lepeniotis my co-host is out at the Compton Family Ice Arena where talking a little bit more about youth sports and tourism.

George, let me toss it to you.

Thanks, Jeff.

I'm on campus here at Notre Dame at the Compton Family Ice Arena.

I'm joined by Nick Kleva, director of sports for Visit South Bend, Mishawaka.

That's correct.

I get that.

That's correct.

Director of sports development.

Yes.

Nick, thanks for being with us today.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

In addition to being the director of sports development for South Visit, South Bend, Mishawaka.

And and that's a that's a branch of our local Chamber of commerce.

But we'll get into that in a second.

You are familiar with this facility, aren't you?

Very familiar.

I grew up coming in from hockey games.

I was unfortunate.

I didn't have a chance to play in this facility, but I saw it being built and I was actually fortunate to work in here for a couple of years before starting with Visit South Bend So before you started there, what was your position here?

So I was the program construction intern, so I worked with the local youth leagues and I also helped manage the Adult Hockey League and the curling league here, as well as some community outreach with the schools and inviting those schools to come here.

So so as we say, the things that this facility is used for, hockey, curling, I believe ice skating.

Well, it really was designed, unlike some of the facilities here at Notre Dame with an eye on the community, was it?

That's correct, yeah.

They really when they were looking at building this facility, they wanted to have community involvement.

So they built this community first.

They wanted to welcome all the teams, all the local players here that attract these national tournaments.

So first and foremost its Notre Dame hockey.

But then right behind it, it's the community and it's it's very unique because it's only one of the facilities on campus that welcomes the youth teams here to practice on the weekdays and have tournaments and games here on the weekends.

So it's the youth sports is in here quite often.

So be almost a kid, you know peewee football playing at the stadium on a Thursday pratctice correct kind of a big deal it's huge yeah and every time you know a kid you know six, seven eight years old you steps on this ice, you just see their eyes light up because it's maybe the first time that they see this and they are very fortunate to be able to have a facility like this that they can learn to play hockey on.

Right.

And, you know, for the viewers that can see it behind us are for many of our viewers in this area who've been to hockey games or youth sports here, you know, it's dressed in it's Irish proud Irish colors.

So I'm sure that adds an element.

Oh, absolutely.

Now, in your current job, your job is to attract youth sports events and tournaments to the area.

Tell us a little bit about youth sports.

I'm a dad.

I've got young kids, and I know that that's a deep, deep rabbit hole.

Yes.

I mean, we are very fortunate with the facilities and everything that we do here locally with youth sports.

I mean, it's a wide range of sports ranging from your hockey to your baseball to soccer, lacrosse.

I mean, we even do some cornhole and quad ball and some of the more unique sports that you don't see often.

So our resumé is very wide and we like to offer and welcome all this different sports here locally.

So in addition to the Compton facility, as you're trying to attract tournaments on behalf of the chamber and help drive, you know, and when we think about the economic impact of those events, it really is more than just kids and hotdogs.

There's a lot of money being spent.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I mean, first and foremost, when you're talking with an event holder, you're we're talking about facilities, we're talking about the restaurants, we're talking about the attractions, everything that those users are going to experience when they're in town.

We are looking for the best facilities and we're trying to get those on board and we're trying to get them in the best hotels and the best attractions in town, which we have many throughout the community.

Yep.

And so what the catalyst, of course, is having a facility that promotes or that's capable of handling a large tournament like like Compton Compton's, obviously this is great A I would assume, in the world of youth hockey, but there are other sports that come to town, aren't there?

There are.

There's baseball.

We use Newton Park down in Lakeville for a lot of baseball tournaments.

We even use the University of Notre Dame for different tournaments throughout the summer.

So that's just one of them.

Lacrosse uses at Edwardsburg Sports Complex, just across the border into Michigan.

We also use Indiana Invaders that is hosted lacrosse and soccer and quad ball before.

So the list is really endless here in the community.

And so as you look at the calendar and as you look at these events coming into town, would you say on any given weekend there could be a youth sports event happening in and around South Bend and Michiana?

Absolutely, yeah.

We shoot.

Our goal is to get at least one youth sports event each weekend throughout the calendar year with some caveats.

Like Notre Dame football home games, we kind of stay away from those.

We stay away from graduation weekend.

But pretty much I have a spreadsheet and it's full.

It's it's bright red and it's full pretty much throughout the whole year.

So it's great to see.

We're constantly adding events to that and we're looking for more events to bring in year after year.

So in addition to coming to play, as you mentioned earlier, they're also coming in usually accompanied by brothers, sisters, parents.

Yeah.

So they're looking for other things to do.

Is there is there a symbiosis?

You mentioned you don't want them on home games, but is there there are other attractions that they often look for, like an ND hockey game after or before the tournament?

Absolutely.

Like you mentioned, when those tournaments and kids are coming, they're bringing their parents, they're bringing their siblings, they're bringing their grandparents in some instances.

So one participant could be, you know, accountable for four and one.

You do those numbers, it adds up quickly.

And like you said, they're here to play in their competition or their game.

But that might only be an hour or so when they leave that we want to get them out in the community and we want them to experience all of our attractions.

They go to a lot of Notre Dame basketball and hockey games.

They're going to Howard Park ice skating.

They're they're going to all the Mishawaka parks.

They just built a brand new ice ribbon, bowling alleys, sky zone.

I mean, the list is endless for attraction.

So first and foremost is on field play.

But then they also looking for the best restaurants we have in everything that they can do to make that experience the best for their family while they're in the community.

Well, that's great.

Well, Nick, thank you for showing us around.

Thanks for talking about youth sports.

Jeff, back to you in the studio.

I know your guest is talking more about youth sports and how it's such a major impact on our economic community.

But I'm going to be here looking around the ice arena and maybe they'll give me a pair of skates.

George.

Nick, thank you.

Appreciate the chance to look at what's going on out in the community and hear a little bit more about it.

Guys, as we finish, Jeff, talk a little bit about just sort of building the inventory.

You talked about kind of the wide variety of sports that we have here, the number of facilities.

We have some plans to make some improvements there.

Talk a little bit about that.

Yeah, we're incredibly excited about what's going on in Mishawaka.

So Mishawaka will break ground here in the next couple of months and what's being called the Mishawaka Fieldhouse and I include those ten indoor basketball courts which can be converted into 17 volleyball courts and two full sized football fields undercover.

So it's just incredible.

And so why the concept isn't necessarily new across the country.

It's proven as a business asset to a community.

And so we are so excited to be able to welcome that to Saint Joseph County and to be able to see and reap the benefits of what that means, not only from a local programmatic standpoint of of residents and those within the county and the region coming in on a given afternoon or evening for batting practice or tryouts or their club team or whatever the case may be.

But also the additional visitors that that will mean and ultimately come to the county because of that new facility.

So we're expecting that to come online and be fully program by the summer of 2024.

Mike stick your way.

You said because you talked briefly about kind of trying to get these three buckets, one of them being that youth sports that's happening like it so so how busy are you during the week with the local folks who are using your facilities to learn to play hockey and to play games?

Yeah, we're very busy, you know, especially at this time of the year, the traditional hockey season, because we did use some ice outside at Merrifield and then at one point even at Howard Park before.

So yeah, we have some teams that used to practice outside that we now have to move inside.

So I would say during a typical hockey season, we're pretty much maxed out on as far as available ice time and we're proud of that because we have a lot of kids that are participating in in hockey.

But I think it kind of we're struggled with there's some additional things we'd like to do, but we can't because we don't have enough ice.

Sure, sure.

Jeff is as we're talking about building product, when I think about the our geography here, sort of Indianapolis is a strong reputation for some of what they've done in youth sports, of parents here traveling to Grand Rapids to talk about just generally communities making these investments and why they're so important.

Yeah, they're hugely important.

And I think in part they're proven.

They're proven time and time again in terms of what they're able to contribute back to the economy or the development that follows suit with it.

I think the balancing and tipping point, though, might be the decision a community has with respect to the size of that facility that they all don't have to be.

Westfield's Grand Park, which is this is exquisite development and 31 north of Indianapolis, where you see restaurants and hotels and a number of shopping centers following suit on the 31 corridor.

And those are expensive to operate.

And I think at times a challenge for government sector to run and to make sure that it just doesn't cost the taxpayers a lot of money.

And so I think there's a great amount of work that needs to go in with respect to the size and what makes sense in a given community.

And I think the model in Mishawaka, the inventory that we have here with ice hockey sheets, baseball fields, is not quite where we need it to be.

And ultimately you want it to be to hit really that sweet spot, but we're closing in on that.

It doesn't mean that it has to be the size of the facility in North Point in Georgia or Westfield, but more than what we have today, well, better serve Saint Joseph County longer term, but it's a delicate balance and it takes a lot of conversation, takes a lot of planning, takes a lot of strategy associated with it to know when you hit that red numbers such that it doesn't become that expensive to run at the end of the day.

Yeah, Mike talk So families that are coming to campus that are participating in tournaments and such, they're they're also traveling the Midwest and going to other spots.

But what's the what's your take?

What's your observation?

What do they say about this area?

Well, I think I think it starts with being able to play a game on campus at the University of Notre Dame.

So like this weekend, high percent, they're going to play five games.

Most of those games will be at Notre Dame in a youth hockey.

A hockey time is another group for sure.

They will be able to play one game at Notre Dame.

So I think that's a big piece of it.

I think having the ice box very close by, they're not traveling very far for that second, third game.

And then I think they're we're very proud of and we're very happy with our hotels.

They're close to the rinks.

They're used to working with hockey families.

They develop ways to make that experience even better.

So we have several families that come, you know, maybe they were here, they come back a couple of years and they they comment on how nice the facility still looks, but how nice it is to come to South Bend.

And they really enjoy coming here.

Jeff in the last couple of minutes.

Let's talk hotels, because, you know, I think the the conventional wisdom here used to be, you know, six football games, you know, graduation, move-in weekend.

And, you know, we were going to have like nine or ten good hotel weekends.

Your job, as you talked about, is to to make sure we have more more than that.

So talk maybe just a little bit as we're in our last couple of minutes or about about that about sort of filling them these other weekends that that traditionally are pretty slow times.

Yeah.

And so for us in Saint Joseph County, really, we see that a little bit of a lull in the hotel occupancy in the months of November through March.

I don't think that's unique to the county.

I think it's a combination of geography and climate in those sorts of of the winter part of it.

But that's okay.

You know, there are still plenty of things to do and activities to see and enjoy.

And so for us specifically having a Mishawaka fieldhouse, having Compton and having the ice box that allow for winter programing, that's just a drive away and it gives you something else to do and something else to enjoy is hugely impactful.

And so as Mike mentioned, 28 out of 36 weekends next year already for with hockey.

And so they're coming in on a Thursday night, oftentimes staying until Sunday, filling those hotel rooms, going to the restaurants, going to the shopping centers.

And the impact of that cannot be understated in the sense of when we're at our our lowest mark and the sense of leisure travel, we're able to backfill that and help, buoy during those more difficult times, the hotel occupancy because of youth sports.

And so the ability and the priority for us to grow that longer term is hugely important.

And I believe we'll see the benefits of that in the coming years.

Mike, in our last minute, any advice to parents or kids who are watching at home about even just getting involved in these sports?

You know, never played a game of hockey.

Want to get involved?

How do they do that?

Well, I mean, there's certainly a learn to play program, a learn to skate program.

But I just look at it sport in general and in an opportunity to be active, to get to meet a new set of friends to, you know, have different coaches that you get to be, you know, who will become an additional mentor for you in your young life.

And like I said, it's just it doesn't have to be hockey.

But I mean, just an opportunity to get out there and be active and meet a new group of friends, I think is something I would highly encourage.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate the insight.

The insight look today.

Appreciate that.

That's it for our show today.

Thank you for watching on WNIT or listening to our podcast to watch this episode again or any of our past episodes, you can find ecademic outlook, at WNIT.org or find our podcast on most major podcast platforms which encourage you to like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

I'm Jeffrey.

I'll see you next time and this WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.