When sports tourism officials from a small community on Maryland’s Eastern Shore got into the event business to revive a high school basketball tournament that the local Lions Club had run for 24 years, it eventually realized that the only way to increase the tournament’s impact was to radically expand it.
The Wicomico County Recreation, Parks and Tourism department took over the holiday tournament in 2006 and for seven years operated it as a 32-team event that was mostly local. Working with Washington, D.C.-based youth sports event operator DMV Elite, the county built the event into a five-day basketball festival that includes a showcase bracket for top players and teams, but also boys varsity, girls varsity, JV and prep school divisions. Last year’s event attracted 124 teams from 10 states, giving it claim to the title as the nation’s largest high school basketball tournament.
“When you have an event that’s homegrown versus one that you bid on, it’s not turnkey,” said James Simmons, Wicomico County assistant tourism manager. “You’re not putting in your bid and then leaving it up to the event operator so you can get back into the sales piece and go try to get more events. With this, it’s a whole different ballgame.”
—Bill King
