Sports Tourism Fund To Explore 18 Applicants, $47.3 Million In Facility Requests

The next round of allocations for the state’s sports tourism investment fund will likely be by the end of 2024. (Photo of Abessinio Stadium from Salesianum School website.)

Eighteen sports facilities in the First State have submitted applications totaling $47.3 million in requests for upgrades as part of the second round of allocations of the Delaware Sports Tourism Capital Investment Fund.

The applicants include University of Delaware (Rullo Stadium), Abessinio Stadium, Dover Motor Speedway, Dave Marshall/Tennis & Pickleball, and Hudson Fields.

The fund was created in 2023 as part of the Fiscal Year 2024 Bond Bill to provide grants in support of sports facilities like arenas, courts, fields, aquatics facilities, track and field, and more.

According to Jessica Welch, director of the Delaware Tourism Office, this second round of allocations is expected to be announced by the end of the year.

The first round of allocations were announced in June, and included $11.3 million distributed to four locations.

It saw 18 applicants ask for $54 million.

Welch cited a 2023 study from Sports ETA that said the sports tourism sector nationwide had a direct spending impact of $52.2 billion, which generated a total economic impact of $128 billion.

The study said the sports tourism industry supported 757,600 full-time and part-time jobs and contributed $20.1 billion in taxes to various sectors of the economy.

“Delaware has a very small piece of that, but it’s a huge piece for our state,” Welch said.

And while the study did not break down the impact on individual states, the tourism office is set to release its first study on the economic impact of sports tourism in Delaware next Friday, Nov. 15.

Here’s the criteria for applicants:

The project’s support of the mission of The Delaware Sports Tourism Capital Investment Fund.
The geographic area where the facility is located, including if there are other sports facilities in the area.
The potential economic impact on the state and local economy if the facility is provided funding.
Other sources of funding secured by the applicant for the facility, including private, state, and local investment committed to the project.
For applications requesting funding for facility improvements, a thorough and substantiated explanation of how funding would enhance their facility and its ability to attract more sports tourism events or increase their current sports tourism event offerings. Facilities must indicate existing tourism-based events or targeted events in the application.
How will the applicant recognize the fund’s investment in the facility, like signage on the property or banners. Recognition will be mutually agreed-upon following approval of the application.

For example, since pickleball is booming in popularity, Midway Motion & Fitness received $2 million in the first round of allocations to construct a pickleball complex in Rehoboth Beach with 12 indoor courts and four outdoor courts.

Another round one recipient was Indoor Track Delaware, who was granted $6 million to construct a new indoor track facility, adjacent to the Chase Fieldhouse in Wilmington, that will serve as a multi-sport complex and host a variety of events and competitions.

The panel that determines the allocations consists of Welch; Ryan Wolfe, sports sales leader at the tourism office; both chairs of the Bond Committee, Sen. Jack Walsh, D-Wilmington,and Rep. Debra Heffernan, D-Bellefonte; and the three tourism boards from each county’s destination management organization.

“We have representation from every county, and that was really important for us, because we want to make sure that we’re spreading this funding out so that all of Delaware can benefit from it, and not just one county or one area,” Welch said.

Rep. Ron Gray, R-Selbyville, said there was disappointment among those that presented several projects downstate in that most of the funds were designated for upstate projects on the first wave of funding.

“There was healthy discussion about how projects were chosen for funding,” he said. “Hopefully, the second phase of funding will see more downstate projects receive funding. It is a great initiative and I hope the early concerns about fairness in funding projects will not be a concern during this second wave of funding.”

Other goals of the sports tourism fund is to encourage people to book hotels, spend money at local businesses, and for visitors to come back for vacation outside of sports tournaments.

“We never know if we’re going to get this Bond Bill funding each year,” Welch said, “so we want to make sure that these facilities have other sources of funding, whether they be private sector or other public sector funds from the county or from the local municipalities that they’re located.”

It’s important the facilities are sustainable, have a great team behind them, and are well-established or working to expand, Welch said.

“This fund is a way to keep the state competitive,” Welch said. “We’re constantly competing with Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, all these other states around us who are putting a lot of funding into sports facilities.”

Recently, she said, the Maryland Stadium Authority allocated about $20 million into the Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill, an event center for things like horse and dog shows and races.

“So we’re constantly looking at what other states are doing,” Welch said, “and this fund really helps Delaware stay competitive with those other states as well, in terms of drawing in sports tourism to our estate.”

Sports Tourism Fund to explore 18 applicants, $47.3 million in facility requests

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