George Page, Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks & Recreation Authority executive director, says partnerships are integral part of tournament recruitment.

VALDOSTA – After years of successfully bringing youth and adult sports tournaments to town, the Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks & Recreation Authority is doubling down on its efforts by launching a new sports recruitment brand: “Compete Valdosta-Lowndes.”

Jessica Catlett, VLPRA & CVL marketing & public relations director, said the VLPRA created the CVL brand specifically to engage sports tournament and event directors.

“Sports event and tournament managers are a niche market. They are looking for athletic facilities that cater to their specific sports needs. It’s important we communicate what we are able to offer in a way that makes it easy for them to choose Valdosta & Lowndes County as their destination,” she said.

The brand has developed a new website that showcases VLPRA sports facilities as well as partner facilities around Valdosta and Lowndes County.

George Page, VLPRA and CVL executive director, said the partnerships are an integral part of tournament recruitment and have been a bedrock of the success that VLPRA has experienced bringing tournaments to town the past several years.

“Valdosta State University and our local school systems have opened their fields and courts to dozens of events, bringing thousands of athletes to our community,” he said. “With all of us working together, we have been able to bring in more than two dozen tournaments and 11,000 participants in 2021 alone. That has resulted in an economic impact of over $7 million to our community in just one year.”

VLPRA has tracked the economic impact of sports tournaments for nearly nine years. In that time, recruited tournaments and events have had a $50 million economic impact for Valdosta and Lowndes County, according to Destinations Internationals’ Economic Impact Calculator.

Page said he expects to build on that success with the addition of Compete Valdosta-Lowndes and future facility projects.

“Facilities are the foundation of sports tournament recruitment. We are blessed to have wonderful fields and courts in our community. While baseball, softball and tennis have been our main focus, we are excited to expand our footprint and open up to a wider variety of sports and participants, resulting in even greater economic impact. We want athletes across America to find out what people here already know: this is a championship destination,” he said.

For more information, visit competevaldostalowndes.com.