Community Updates

NEW AND NOTABLE IN 2019

BY THE NUMBERS

The Experience Columbia SC Sports team hosted a total of 10 events this past quarter with an estimated economic impact of over $2.4 million.  

THE ROAD TO THE FINAL FOUR

We are so excited to host the first and second rounds of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament March 21 – 24. We are expecting approximately 20,000 players, coaches, members of the media and fans in Columbia for this event, generating an estimated economic impact of $9 million. To set a strong precedent in the hopes of continuing to host the tournament in years to come, we have held monthly community engagement meetings leading up to the event, as well as encouraged our community partners to host events to showcase our excitement and our destination throughout the entire weekend. 

ACCOLADES

We are excited to announce that ECSC Sports are a SportsEvents 2019 Reader’s Choice Award Winner! Sports event professionals were asked to nominate destinations and sports venues that they believe display exemplary creativity and professionalism toward the youth and amateur sports groups they host. Nominations were received from the readers throughout the year and the top picks were selected based on those online voting results. 

ON THE ROAD

This past quarter, the ECSC Sports team traveled to Louisville, KY for the TEAMS Conference, Cleveland, OH for the National Association of Sports Commissions 4S Summit, Destin, FL for the Connect Women in Sports Summit, San Diego, CA for the US Rowing Convention and Daytona Beach, FL for US Sports Congress, where we hosted the closing reception. We are thrilled to welcome the US Sports Congress to Columbia later this year. 

VENUE OF THE MONTH

Continuing with the Venue of the Month initiative to highlight one sports venue on social media each month, we featured Lexington County Baseball Stadium in October, Spirit Communications Park in November and the Richland County Rowing Center in December.