COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Nov. 27, 2017) – The adidas Windy City National Qualifier was selected as a “Champions of Economic Impact in Sports Tourism” award winner as recently announced by Sports Destination Management.
The adidas Windy City National Qualifier, one of 12 national qualifying events feeding into the USA Volleyball Girls’ Junior National Championships (GJNC), is a three-day tournament held at McCormick Place in Chicago. The event, administered through the Great Lakes Regions of USA Volleyball with Sandy Abbinanti serving as tournament director, created 12,565 total room nights with an estimated economic impact of $19 million as 16,000 tourists and an additional 24,000 spectators came to Chicago to watch the event.
“USA Volleyball congratulates our Great Lakes Region on this very well-deserved recognition,” USA Volleyball CEO Jamie Davis said. “It is exciting to see the popularity of USA Volleyball soar. It’s qualifier and championship events now collectively deliver hundreds of millions of dollars in economic value annually to the host cities.”
The Windy City National Qualifier and city gained national and international exposure with the live-streaming of many of its matches. In addition, hundreds of youth participated in USA Volleyball High Performance tryouts held in conjunction with the Windy City National Qualifier in their quest to become part of the United States National Team pipeline.