Virginia scores big with booming sports tourism industry

It’s “showtime, all the time,” the Henrico Sports & Entertainment Authority’s website proclaims. Since the county’s new Henrico Sports & Events Center opened in late 2023, it’s been “showtime” for volleyball, basketball, indoor soccer, gymnastics, combat sports, futsal and bigger events like the 2024 Atlantic 10 Women’s Basketball Championship.

Sports events have sparked a major tourism boost for the local community, says the authority’s executive director, Dennis Bickmeier. County officials reported a 200% increase in economic impact from sports for the period since 2013, when the county began courting sports tourism.

Statewide, since the pandemic, the Virginia economy overall also has seen a big boost from sports-related events, says Dan Roberts, vice president of research and strategy for Virginia Tourism Corp., the state marketing entity for tourism and film and TV productions.

Sports tourism generated $2.4 billion in spending in 2022, up 12% from 2021, and driving $344 million in state and local tax revenues and supporting 28,138 full-time and part-time jobs, according to VTC research.

And much of that comes from amateur sports, which are a lucrative generator for tourism spending nationwide. The most recent annual report from the Sports Events and Tourism Association, the industry’s trade association, finds a direct annual spending impact of $52.2 billion nationwide from tourism related to amateur sports, supporting 757,600 full-time and part-time jobs and contributing $20.1 billion in state and local tax revenues.

And for 2024, the first year Sports ETA identified the top states for economic impact from amateur sports spending, Virginia came in 10th in the nation.

Many regions around the commonwealth have seen the benefit of staking out niches in attracting amateur sporting leagues and tournaments, Roberts says. For instance, Salem has become a destination for softball and baseball tournaments, while Hampton’s Aquaplex is a haven for swim meets. Roanoke has become a hotspot for cycling, as a training location for 2024 Olympic gold medalist Jennifer Valente and home to the Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY28 women’s road bicycle racing team. Meanwhile, Virginia Beach’s Jackalope Fest features extreme sports such as skateboarding, bouldering and BASE jumping.

‘A big boost’

In Henrico, the 3,500-seat Sports & Events Center has allowed the county to place a much greater emphasis on attracting indoor sports, Bickmeier says.

“The county has been active in outdoor sports tourism. Soccer, baseball and lacrosse are really strong in Central Virginia. But indoor sports was missing,” Bickmeier says. “This has been a big boost.”

In 2024, its first full year in operation, the center attracted approximately 400,000 visitors. Notable among those events was the Atlantic 10 Women’s Basketball Championship, which attracted 16,000 visitors over five days in March 2024, capped off with a victory by the hometown University of Richmond Spiders. The tournament returned in 2025, with George Mason University coming out victorious, and is slated to come back next year.

The Henrico center also was the site of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association’s National Championship, which brought in more than 1,100 players.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Chesterfield County, the 115-acre River City Sportsplex, an outdoor athletic complex featuring 16 synthetic turf fields, has been a major draw. River City drew most of the 340,000 people who attended or participated in 160 major amateur sporting visitation events last year in Chesterfield, says J.C. Poma, the county’s executive director of sports, visitation and entertainment.

Chesterfield had an estimated economic impact in 2024 of $79 million from amateur sports tourism, Poma says, and $56.7 million of that was directly attributable to River City Sportsplex, which also generated $2.1 million of the $2.5 million in local tax revenue generated from county sports tourism.

River City “fell into our lap,” says Poma. The county acquired the facility, formerly known as SportsQuest, in 2016 from a private company that had purchased the then-failed facility at a bankruptcy auction. The county paid $5.5 million for the sportsplex, which was assessed at $17.2 million. At the time it was estimated that a comparable facility would cost $28 million.

“It was a no-brainer move,” Poma says. “River City got Chesterfield into sports tourism.”

Last year, the county completed a $9 million expansion at River City, adding four new lighted sports fields for a total of 16 at the site. Now, large tournaments with many teams can play games simultaneously at the sportsplex.

More improvements planned for the next year include more parking, a playground area with a splash pad, a picnic area and a 5K trail system. The sportsplex also treats citizens by hosting concerts, a Kite Day and even a Snowball Fest, Poma says.

River City generates an annual net surplus each year from renting the facility for $600 per field per day, which allows the county to offer River City for free use to county residents and sports teams at other times.

“You don’t see a lot of public facilities make money,” notes Poma.

Last year, Chesterfield hosted 160 sports events in the county, and about 170 events are planned in the county for 2025. “Sports range from soccer to football to field hockey and lacrosse to niche sports like kickball and spike ball and ultimate frisbee,” he says.

Mountain biking

The Roanoke region has done well with traditional amateur sports, according to John Oney, vice president of sports and sales at Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge, but it’s stepped up its game by adding other sports such as pickleball and women’s flag football to the mix.

Mountain biking has been a great success for the region, with Roanoke set to host the USA Cycling Endurance Mountain Bike National Championships this summer and in 2026. It also hosted the 2022 and 2023 Amateur Road National Championships.

“Virginia’s Blue Ridge is set to become the capital of American mountain biking,” USA Cycling President and CEO Brendan Quirk said last year when announcing the location for the championships. “The incredible variety of riding terrain and the passion for all forms of bike racing is a huge community strength.”

The race will take place “in the middle of a vibrant downtown so people can see it up close and personal,” Oney says.

Last year, the Roanoke region hosted 59 sporting events, which generated an economic impact of $18.2 million. These are “good dollars,” Oney adds.

“They’re dollars that are being brought in from outside that are directly infused into the economy in lodging, gas stations and restaurants.”

Some regions are racing to keep up.

Fairfax County’s big plans for sports tourism were delayed by the pandemic, according to Springfield District Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity, chair of the county’s Sports Tourism Task Force.

“We’re unfortunately behind. We’re playing a little bit of catch up,” Herrity says, but “we’re getting back in the mode of moving forward.” The county has not formally picked a sport to focus on, but “we’re looking at a public recreation authority model similar to Henrico County’s.”

Sports tourism benefits residents in many ways, Roberts with Virginia Tourism notes. “It brings in revenue, but it provides really great places for locals to spend time as well. It’s great for recreation and health. It’s a big quality-of-life issue.”