Friday, January 23, 2009
The City of Steamboat Springs is back to negotiating with the Triple Crown Sports organization, making front page news again today. The sports organizer who brings a lot of visitors to our community every summer is still trying to get a firm contract in place for their “World Series” event starting in 2011. The organization still has 2 years left in the existing contract.
The World Series event currently brings in close to 400 teams over a 4-day period each summer, which is great for Steamboat’s local tax base. This kind of summer tourism has gone a long way towards city sales tax collections in years past and it’s hard to imagine having to suddenly replace these revenues. In addition to city sales tax collections, the group gives a major boost to many retail, restaurant, lodging and activity vendors. These are sales that might not otherwise happen if it weren’t for Triple Crown Sports.
The problem however is that Triple Crown Sports President Dave King is hoping to double the amount of teams in the World Series event over the next few years. 800 teams in Steamboat Springs at one period of time would essentially out-strip our capacity in terms of both lodging pillows and sports facilities. There’s also concern from some locals about traffic congestion, noise and other issues.
Mr. King has made it public that he wants to come to a long-term agreement with Steamboat and keep the event coming back to our mountain destination. However, he has received 8 other bids from other cities looking to play host to Triple Crown if they decide to move the event elsewhere. City Council President Loui Antonucci has made it clear that he is in full support of keeping Triple Crown coming to Steamboat. He obviously understands the economic importance of having them return.
