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Home My WebLink About2016 Vail Lacrosse Shootout RecapSurveyed Event Recap: Vail Lacrosse Shootout October 19, 2016 Vail Lacrosse Shootout: June 25 through July 3, 2016 Office: 303.779.2708 Mobile: 303.877.7977 jsoran@montgomerylittle.com 2 Town of Vail | CSE | October 19, 2016 Vail Lacrosse Shootout 2016 3 Attendance Estimate 4 Town of Vail | CSE | October 19, 2016 •How would you impact attendance next year? As dates for 2017 are discussed, we are taking into consideration comments about the schedule we receive from participants. A tournament schedule that takes into account players’ personal and work obligations will increase attendance. We also will try to increase attendance by trying to recruit more teams in our Women’s Elite and Men’s Masters Divisions, as well as adding a Women’s Masters Division if we are able to generate enough teams for it. Visitor Type 5 Town of Vail | CSE | October 19, 2016 •Was this the visitor type split you expected? Yes •Why or why not? Please explain. Since the Shootout draws teams from many geographical areas of the country, nearly all of our participants and others traveling with them are overnight visitors, staying for several nights. •What steps would you take to optimize visitor mix? Each year we strive to increase the geographical representation of teams at the tournament, especially in our boys and girls high school divisions. We try to involve Vail Valley youth lacrosse players in our event through our youth lacrosse clinic and Chumash 3v3 tournament. In our Men’s Elite & HS Boys divisions we usually have players/teams from mountain communities and the western slope. Overall Visitor Profile 6 Town of Vail | CSE | October 19, 2016 •Who was your anticipated target demographic? Male and female participants ages 16 to over 60, from as many geographic areas of the country as possible. •Did you reach your target demographic? We do well at reaching the 40 and over male demographic. We want to increase collegiate and post collegiate female participants, as well as male players from age 30 to 40. •Why or why not? The number of summer lacrosse tournaments has increased substantially, particularly at the high school level. For our male & female participants 26 to 40, career and family obligations are a factor. •What would you change to reach that audience next year? Considering division dates that may be more convenient for players in the 26 to 40 age range, as well as avoiding conflicting dates with showcase events at the high school level. Overnight Visitor Profile: Overnight Visitors & Seasonal Residents Only Only 7 Town of Vail | CSE | October 19, 2016 •What measures did you take to incentivize attendees to book lodging in the Town of Vail? We encourage teams to book their lodging through our travel partner, Erik Tilley of Sport Sherpa Travel. All communications to teams prior to the event include a recommendation that teams book lodging through Erik. Erik always submits several lodging options to teams that are in Vail, E. Vail & Lionshead. To the extent we can, we try to schedule as many games in Vail as possible, which encourages teams to seek lodging in Vail. Many teams have expressed that Vail is their preferred location for games and lodging. Role/Importance of Event in Intent to Visit Vail 8 Town of Vail | CSE | October 19, 2016 •What actions did you take this year to generate the number of overnight guests? Each division of the tournament plays for 3 to 4 days, which requires participants to stay overnight for at least 2 to 3 nights. As mentioned previously, most of our teams/participants are from areas outside of Colorado. Also, many teams travel with chaperones, family & friends, increasing the number of overnight guests. Additionally, some players combine the tournament with family vacation in the Vail area, also increasing the number of overnight guests. •How would you increase the number of overnight Vail guests coming for the event next year? We encourage teams to stay through the night their division play ends. If we are able to increase the number of teams, particularly in the Women’s Elite and Men’s Masters Divisions, the number of overnight guests will increase as well. Vail Lacrosse Shootout 2016 October 19, 2016 9 NPS (Net Promoter Score)/Likelihood to Recommend 10 Town of Vail | CSE | October 19, 2019 •Do you think the NPS scores reflect the attendee event experience? Yes. What steps would you take to improve the NPS scores for your event next year? Although most feedback we’ve received from participants is very positive, our NPS is slightly lower this year. We need to be able to provide close in, free parking to our event participants. This is the complaint we hear most often. Fields were affected this year by the loss of use of Vail Mountain School and the rain, forcing us to alter schedules and move some games to other fields. Field use will be improved next year when we again have the use of Vail Mountain School, allowing more games to be scheduled in Vail, which is preferred by players. We will look at changing our vendor options to better accommodate what participants want. Estimated Return on Investment (ROI) & Attendee Expenditures 11 Town of Vail | CSE | October 19, 2016 •What did your event do to encourage spending in Vail? We promote Vail valley businesses by offering advertising in our tournament program and by emailing local business offers to teams, encouraging teams to patronize these businesses. The duration of our event also encourages spending, due to the length of time participants and others traveling with them stay in the Vail area. The event itself utilizes as many local businesses as possible for staff meals and lodging, event tent rental, cross-promotions and team social functions hosted by the tournament. Vail Brand Compatibility The Premier International Mountain Resort Community 12 Town of Vail | CSE | October 19, 2016 The event met the standard of excellence by: •Bringing a well known and highly regarded lacrosse event to the Vail Valley that draws highly competitive teams and talented players in many different age categories and from many different parts of the country to a tournament that both locals and visitors to the Vail area can attend for free. •Striving to achieve a high standard in keeping with the standard of excellence Vail has become known for and adding a quality event to the many events and activities available in Vail in the summer that make it such a desirable and special place to be. 2016 was the 44th Vail Lacrosse Shootout played in the Vail Valley and we pride ourselves on our long history of bringing a first-class event to Vail. Event Strengths & Weaknesses 13 Town of Vail | CSE | October 19, 2016 •Exceeded expectations in these ways: This year for the first time we partnered with another local event, the Cover Rock Music Festival. We hope to increase efforts to cross- promote our events in the future. We also were sponsored by another local business, Alpine Mobile Physicians. Additionally, we worked with two additional vendor/sponsors – Epoch Lacrosse and Bagtagery. We hope to increase their level of involvement in future tournaments. •Measures that could be taken for event improvement: Close in, free parking for participants is needed. Being charged to park at Ford Field is the most common complaint we receive. In 2017 we hope to have more vendors with a greater variety of goods. We also plan to improve the tournament website to have up to date game schedules, field venues and directions posted so that the most current information can be accessed there. We hope to increase the number of teams in the Women’s Elite and Men’s Masters divisions so as to provide a more competitive, enjoyable tournament for those age groups. •For repeat event, comparison to past years: Per the RRC survey results, event attendance was 12,800 this year as opposed to 11,000 in 2015. The ROI to Vail increased this year from $167 to $179, with total estimated spending of $2,690,882. In 2016 we saw an increase in the number of teams in the High School Girls, Men’s Elite, Women’s Elite and Zenmasters divisions. Community Contribution 14 Town of Vail | CSE | October 19, 2016 •Describe how the event impacted Vail’s sense of community: •We do not charge for admission, enabling both Vail locals as well as visitors to the Vail area to come and enjoy lacrosse played at its highest level, by top players •Our event is a long standing event in Vail, this being our 44th year to host the tournament here. Locals give us feedback that they summertime in Vail and our lacrosse tournament go hand in hand. •Our free lacrosse clinic for boys ages 7 to 12 is a way for us to reach out to local youth and provide them with a fun event that teaches them lacrosse skills and strategies. The clinic is taught by Jim Soran, head lacrosse coach at Regis HS, along with a few collegiate lacrosse players. Vail Lacrosse Shootout 2016 October 19, 2016 15 Topline Marketing Efforts 16 Town of Vail | CSE | October 19, 2016 •Promotion of the tournament on social media. This year, we had 2,663 followers on Twitter, 2,815 on Facebook and 672 on Instagram. •We continue to improve our tournament website (www.vaillacrosse.com) to promote the tournament and provide up to date event information including game schedules, daily tournament results and photos of each days’ action. Through July, 2016 we had 74,673 visitors to the website. •Our tournament program, which includes game schedules and the Vail America Days schedule, is available for free at all of our field venues, the Vail and Lionshead welcome centers and a few local businesses. •Our partnership with Coaches Aid enables us to market our event to sponsors they have relationships with and also offers us the ability to offer online, video advertising to tournament sponsors. Potential for Growth & Sponsorships/Media Exposure 17 Town of Vail | CSE | October 19, 2016 •We will continue our partnership with Coaches Aid, which offers a means to increase tournament sponsorship through their promotion of our event to potential sponsors and increased media exposure of our event through their online broadcast. •In 2016, US Lacrosse was again an event sponsor and promoted the grand opening of their new headquarters in Baltimore through advertising in our program and promotional materials distributed in our team packets. We plan to seek ways to increase their involvement, sponsorship and exposure of the tournament through them. •In 2016 we partnered with Cover Rock Music Festival. We will continue to work with their organizer to maximize ways to cross promote each other’s events. •For next year’s tournament, we’ll increase our efforts to gain increased media coverage of our event in local publications as well as national, lacrosse publications, both online and in print. Vail Lacrosse Shootout 2016 October 19, 2016 18 Sustainability Efforts 19 Town of Vail | CSE | October 19, 2016 •What measures were taken at your event to support the environmentally-friendly goals of the Town of Vail? •At all field venues, recycles receptacles are placed in close proximity to trash cans. Our training staff provides drinking water in Gatorade coolers to teams to discourage the use of individual plastic water bottles. •We strive to meet as many items on the Vail’s Green Events Checklist as possible for our event. •Tournament communications to teams are all electronic. We use an online registration system for tournament registration of teams, players and coaches, eliminating registration paperwork. •We encourage teams to use the Vail transportation system while in Vail. The Town of Vail is committed to the stewardship and protection of our unique mountain environment. In consideration of both our local and global impacts and opportunities, our environmental vision is to demonstrate and promote: renewable energy, resource efficiency, ecosystem protection, and community awareness and education. Event Budget 20 Town of Vail | CSE | October 19, 2016 •Total event budget: $191,948.50 •CSE funds: $15,000 •Profit and loss: $150.79 •Funding utilization: CSE funding is used to offset marketing and promotional expenses, including re-designing the tournament website to make it easier to navigate and locate up to date information. Funding is also used to promote the event on social media with the intent of recruiting more teams. Finally, funding is used for expenses associated with the creation of the online broadcast of tournament games by Coaches Aid. •In-kind sponsorship: $3,550 •Cash sponsorship: $29,110 (Vendor, Advertisement & Sponsor income, including CSE funds) * Event producer to attach detailed budget for recap Additional Information/Appendix 21 Town of Vail | CSE | October 19, 2016 •Provide detailed budget in complete PDF please See Attached •Provide full version of the Survey Dashboard PDF in Appendix See Attached