Southwest Florida may have found a new tourism niche

Sports tourism may be the next niche for Southwest Florida. Why not attract older athletes to return to the region on a vacation?

With a successful Pan American Masters Swimming Championship in June and this past week’s USRowing Masters Championship under their belts, Sarasota and Manatee counties will likely pursue other so-called “Masters” events to boost tourism.

Together, the Masters’ swimming and rowing events brought an estimated 2,700 athletes here, and injected millions of dollars into the region’s economy.

Tourism officials say the Masters’ class — athletes 19 and older but typically over 50 — fit well into the fabric of Southwest Florida.

“It mirrors our community,” said Virginia Haley, president of Visit Sarasota County, the county’s tourism agency. “It’s no secret that we are a little older, but we’re essentially an active lifestyle community. Masters competitors already have their ears open to us. They’ve heard of Sarasota before.”

Even more will hear of Sarasota in 2014.

Earlier this month, the YMCA of the USA announced that the Sarasota Family Y and the Selby Aquatic Center at Potter Park will host the YMCA National Masters Championships in 2014 and 2015, events that are expected to draw 600 athletes and deliver $500,000 to $1 million in direct economic impact each year.

“Masters athletes tend to have more disposable income and stay in town longer,” said Nicole Rissler, director of sports for Visit Sarasota County. “It will be a great time of the year to visit Sarasota, in April and May, for a four-day event. We expect many athletes will stay for the week and make it a family vacation.”

While the raft of events is taking shape now, the real preparation for landing national championship-level swimming events began in 2008.

That’s when Sarasota County officials recruited U.S. Masters Swimming — the governing body behind adult events like the Pan-Ams — from Charlotte, N.C.

Rowing’s success comes from more humble beginnings.

Benderson Development Co. executives, county officials and sport boosters began forging a vision for the park and the surrounding area as a venue for youth regattas and championships long before plans for any true rowing center — or world championship bids — began to form.

The strategy to target older athletes may be expanded to other sports, like volleyball, in which the region already maintains a support base and high interest in participation.

With swimming, the Sarasota YMCA’s popular Sharks team has generated intense passion for years as the team captured national swimming titles.

The YMCA National Masters’ decision to come to Sarasota stemmed from the $1.05 million investment in the Selby Aquatic pool by the county and the YMCA, as well as the success of the Pan-Ams, which drew 1,700 adult athletes and their families to Florida over a 14-day period.

When the international competitors were not swimming, many dined in Sarasota-area restaurants and shopped in the region’s malls and stores.

In all, swimmers and their supporters filled 4,000 hotel rooms over two weeks.

At Nathan Benderson Park, where the USRowing Masters Championships wrap up today, officials already are thinking beyond rowing.

Suncoast Nature Aquatic Center Association, the nonprofit group in charge of drawing events there, is actively working to bring standup paddleboard races, triathlons and kayak and canoe races to the 600-acre park, located near the Sarasota-Manatee line.

“Benderson Park will host events year-round and will cater to all kinds of athletes,” said Paul Blackketter, Suncoast Aquatic’s chief operating officer.

For Joe Dobson, a 65-year-old Sarasotan who moved to the area nearly a decade ago, the strong local sports community was part of what lured him here in the first place.

“We have people moving to Sarasota more often than you think because of the rowing mecca we’re creating here,” said Dobson, who rowed in the Masters championship. “People want to take advantage of living in a place where you can row or compete year round.”

For the Selby Aquatic Center, Masters events like the Pan-Ams and the YMCA National Masters represent only the beginning of what officials hope will be an ongoing relationship with older athletes.

With those two national and international events in mind, the Sarasota Family YMCA hopes to bid on other, similarly prestigious events, such as the YMCA age group championships — or even a USA Swimming Grand Prix, which could draw current and former Olympians to Sarasota, said Kurt Stringfellow, CEO of Sarasota Family YMCA.

Haley, the Visit Sarasota president, said, “We never want to close a door completely.”

For Benderson Park, the Masters championship is the largest regatta there to date, drawing more than 1,000 entries. But that four-figure participation will likely be exceeded in coming years.

If plans hold, each subsequent year calls for bigger events to be held at the park, leading up to and beyond the 2017 World Rowing Championships, which the park is vying to host.

Suncoast Aquatic officials will find out on Sept. 2 if they have been awarded that championship, which would bring an estimated 42,000, mostly younger, competitors and supporters from around the globe and guarantee the 2016 World Rowing Cup as well.

But regardless of whether the world championships come here, Suncoast Aquatic officials have no intention of abandoning the Masters class.

They also are in consideration for the 2018 World Masters Regatta and the ’18 World Coastal Championships, which feature a mix of athletes.

Southwest Florida as a whole could just be getting started as far as Masters and other events are concerned.

Based on the early successes of rowing and swimming, volleyball or triathlons could be what draw even more adult competitors to the region in the future.

Suncoast Aquatic officials have met with USA Triathlon leaders about hosting major Olympic-distance triathlons at the park that would likely involve Masters-level competitors.

While Sarasota County has hosted volleyball tournaments in the past, like Dig the Beach — a women’s division volleyball tournament that stopped in Siesta Key this year — even bigger matches could be in the offing.

Tourism officials credit the community’s already deep interest in athletics — regardless of age.

“All of this was possible because we have strong Masters programs here,” Haley said.

“Our community has a strong core group of athletes who swim and play volleyball.”