Pinellas County brought in 53 sports events from October through mid-March. Those events created 51,000 room-nights and $30 million in direct spending. Warm winter weather drew teams and tournaments to the area. So did new facilities like the $26.5 million Sprowls Horizon Sports Park, which opened in February.
Back-to-back college softball tournaments arrived this year. The NFCA and ESPN events featured 12 ranked teams, including the top two in the nation. The Clearwater Fall Classic, an invite-only amateur tournament, came to the area for the first time. It brought 82 teams. Eighty of those squads traveled from out of state.
“This shows how the best teams in the country come to Clearwater to start the year,” said Caleb Peterson, Director of the Sports Commission for Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, during a Tourist Development Council meeting Wednesday morning, according to St. Pete Catalyst…