By Nancy Mann Jackson
Even if you’re not an athlete, there’s something exciting about finding yourself on the inside of a stadium, surrounded by friends and colleagues and all the energy of a high-stakes athletic event. And as meeting planners look for new ways to spice up their meetings, athletic venues are becoming increasingly popular.
“Sometimes it just makes sense to look outside of the traditional event space in your town,” says Bobbi Reed, Director of Operations at Infinity Park in Glendale, CO, an athletic complex that hosts numerous corporate and organizational events. “You never know what you might find, and sports venues have a lot to offer. It could be that a company wants a general change in the look of their event or that they want to stage a more casual event based on corporate culture and budget guidelines. I think groups are likely to look for a different space from time to time, and moving from traditional room rentals to stadiums or arenas has great appeal.”
For some groups, sports venues are simply a good option for seating large numbers of people in arena style. But others actually incorporate sports or athletics into their events or transform the playing fields into other uses. At Infinity Park, for instance, the 91,000 square feet of natural turf pitch is “primarily used for rugby matches and international tournaments,” Reed says. “But it’s also used for corporate picnics, movie nights, concerts and festivals.”
Numerous Options
Like growing numbers of sports venues, Infinity Park offers a variety of types of space to give meeting planners a number of options. “We have a high-tech Event Center adjacent to our 3,000-seat Stadium, so we have a unique venue that combines indoor ballroom and conference space with outdoor plazas and natural grass fields,” Reed says, noting that the Event Center includes an 8,600-square-foot ballroom with 360-degree screens and built-in projection, along with three smaller conference rooms. “In 2010 we’ll add an eight-acre park, further distinguishing Infinity Park as a unique venue where the possibilities are endless.”
In Salt Lake City, meeting groups are increasingly interested in using the destination’s numerous athletic venues, many of which were built for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Two of the city’s most unique sports venues open to groups are Utah Olympic Park, which was the site of Olympic bobsledding and Nordic ski jumping, among other events; and the Utah Olympic Oval, which hosted speed skating events. Groups have found a variety of ways to use the various venues, says Tori Piersante, Director of Convention Sales for the Salt Lake City CVB.
“Groups might have dinner at the Olympic Oval and then go down on the ice and have a curling seminar,” Piersante says, explaining that curling is similar to “shuffleboard on ice.” Some groups have even “geared up and played ice hockey there,” she adds.
For those planners who are simply looking for good places to hold large general sessions, sports venues are also a good fit, according to Piersante. Not only is there plenty of seating, but “the television clusters that hang from the ceiling allow them to easily stream sessions for online viewing,” she notes.
In addition to the Olympic Oval and Utah Olympic Park, other sports venues available to planners in Salt Lake City include Huntsman Stadium, the home of University of Utah basketball, and Rice-Eccles Stadium, the university’s football stadium and the site of the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Because of the city’s status as an Olympic host city, “people think of Salt Lake as a more athletic, health-conscious destination,” says Shawn Stinson, Director of Communications for the city’s CVB. “If planners can tie in a sports-related activity while they’re here, they want to do that.”
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A Unique Experience
Even in cities that have never hosted the Olympics, planners are likely to find sports venues like Glendale’s Infinity Park that can provide a unique experience for attendees. Seek out venues such as horse tracks, NASCAR speedways, baseball diamonds, football stadiums and motocross or skateboard parks. In Lakewood, NJ, for instance, the local minor league baseball team, the Lakewood BlueClaws, offers meeting packages at its FirstEnergy Park.
The park’s BlueClaws Executive Conference Center (BECC) is located on the luxury suite level and is equipped with state-of-the-art audio/visual equipment and an on-site catering service. When an event is combined with a baseball game, attendees can “experience the one-of-a-kind benefits of being at a ballpark – the remarkable backdrop, the full stadium tour and the possibility of on-field participation, including a corporate event fireworks display,” according to the team’s website.
Like FirstEnergy Park, almost every athletic facility includes its own “built-in fun atmosphere,” Reed says. “The High-Definition JumboTron adds an element of enjoyment to corporate picnics that most city parks can’t, and we can add camera positions to showcase the activities that bring the entire group into the action.”
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