A Thursday-morning press conference at the MassMutual Center will reveal details of a new sports division of the GSCVB.
Members of the Bellarmine basketball team celebrate their NCAA Division II national championship at the MassMutual Center in 2011.
SPRINGFIELD – A new commission is being created to help bring more sporting events and related tourism to Western Massachusetts.
The Greater Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau will hold a press conference Thursday morning at the MassMutual Center to announce the formation of a new division focused on sports.
Also expected to be announced is who will be on the commission and who will lead it.
The initiative aims to bring all four counties of Western Mass. together to attract sporting events and sports-related business to the region.
Springfield has hosted many sporting events, including the NCAA Division II men’s basketball Elite 8, the Division III women’s basketball championship and the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic.
With the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a big player, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference has held its men’s and women’s basketball championships here the last two years, with another year on the contract.
The Spalding Hoophall Classic has been a very successful high school event run by the Hall of Fame at Springfield College.
The Hall of Fame will hold the inaugural Women’s Challenge in December, while the GSCVB has led a bid to draw an NCAA women’s regional for 2014.
The new division will work to bring other events to the region – not just basketball, and not just to Springfield. The hope is all the assets of the four counties will help draw a variety of events.
While hospitality-based businesses such as hotels, retails and restaurants are expected to be involved, funding from public sources may be the primary source of revenue.
According to the National Association of Sports Commissions website, there are about 600 registered sports commissions in the United States, all created and organized to draw sporting events and the dollars they bring to a particular area.
Thursday’s announcement should add one more to that list.