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Events and Attractions

Creating ‘a sense of place that’s attractive’

When Jon Lugbill took the job as executive director of Richmond’s newly created sports commission 24 years ago, his mission was like that of most of his counterparts: to help organize bids for events that would raise the city’s profile and fill hotel rooms. Today, his Richmond Sports Backers organization rarely
bids on events, yet is widely considered one of the better sports destination promoters in the country, achieving that position by instead creating its own events. Lugbill spoke with SportsBusiness Journal about that choice and its implications.

On how owning and operating more events changes a commission: You become jaded. You look at bids differently. It becomes harder to provide a large amount of staff time for somebody else’s event. It becomes difficult to provide large financial incentives. It’s hard to be involved in something if there’s no return to your organization, because your organization is going to do the things that help the community more directly. … We all talk about the economic impact of visitors. But what about the money that left the market because an event owner took it with them?

On staffing and structure: If you’re bidding, you’ll have salespeople who sell to bring events to town and you’ll have marketing people whose strength is to prepare bids and present information about your city that looks good to rights holders. We have to have consumer expertise and business-to-business expertise and then, maybe most importantly, the expertise to actually produce the event. You’re probably not set up that way if your focus is on bidding.

On the success of Richmond’s Dominion Riverrock adventure sports festival: An event can do more for your community if you’re intentional about understanding where it fits in your community. We call it place branding. But it’s not just about the visitor. People in Richmond are really proud of our river and our active outdoor culture. So we created an event where we can embrace it and love it and share it. We’re retaining large numbers of millennials now where before we were not. Having an active outdoor lifestyle scene does more than just fill hotel rooms. It creates a sense of place that’s attractive.

— Bill King

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