Youth Sports Tourism

Westfield’s massive Grand Park Sports Campus doesn’t open until March, but city leaders already are focused on making sure the 1 million-plus visitors they expect next year want to come back.

Inspired by the host committee behind Indianapolis’ much-heralded 2012 Super Bowl, Mayor Andy Cook is setting up an Office of Hospitality to help the sleepy suburb wake up to its potential as a national youth-sports mecca. Westfield is also consulting with the architect of the Indianapolis Super Bowl effort.

“We need to be known as a very friendly city, and it’s going to take a little extra effort from all of us, ” he said.

Cook is still working out the details of the city’s hospitality office, but he expects to shift existing resources to fund and staff the initiative.

Westfield, a city of 32, 000, is gearing up to host more than 1 million visitors next year with the opening of its Grand Park sports complex. (IBJ photo/Andrea Muirragui Davis)

Residents and businesses alike must prepare for the flood of visitors already booked for 2014, which is sure to all but overwhelm the city of 32, 000—at least in the short term. But officials expect Westfield’s $45 million investment in the sports park to spur private development once the crowds start showing up.

Cook expects much of the Grand Park-related development to occur near the park, but he hopes visitors—and businesses—also are drawn across U.S. 31 to the heart of the city. Westfield’s so-called Grand Junction downtown redevelopment plan calls for creating a civic plaza highlighting local waterways and a half-dozen recreational paths, including the Monon Trail.

Unique amenity

Grand Park will be the largest such complex in the United States, with 26 baseball diamonds and 31 multi-use fields. Private users also are planning indoor soccer and baseball facilities.

Youth sports is big business nationally, and Westfield is making a play for its slice of the pie. The more memorable visitors’ experiences, the more likely they are to become repeat customers, Cook reasons. And that can only help existing businesses.

“We’ve got a gift that no other community has: an invasion of [as many as] 1-1/2 million potential customers year after year after year, ” Cook told Westfield Chamber of Commerce members during his annual State of the City address Nov. 21. “Hoosier hospitality is in our blood. We need to build on that.”

He pointed to the rave reviews Indianapolis’ customer-service efforts got during Super Bowl XLVI, when more than 8, 000 volunteers helped one of the NFL’s smallest cities stage what’s been called one of the best Super Bowls.

It will take similar support for “little” Westfield to grow its nascent hospitality industry, the mayor said.

“How does a little city pull this off?” he asked at the chamber luncheon. “Because of the community.”

To that end, Westfield has enlisted the help of Indianapolis Super Bowl Host Committee chief Allison Melangton, now CEO of Indiana Sports Corp. The city also is talking to tourism group Visit Indy, which continues to operate the Super Service hospitality training program it created in collaboration with IUPUI in 2011.