Copyright 2005 Sarasota Herald-Tribune Co.
The Olympic-style event could mean up to $6 million for the county, the organization says
By KATHLEEN McLAUGHLIN
Sarasota Herald Tribune
The Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau has never paid to bring a big event to town, but Larry Dunklee thinks the Florida Police and Firefighter Games should be a $25,000 exception.
Dunklee, chief deputy of the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, is spearheading the effort to bring the games and wants the visitors bureau to cover the cost of bidding for the weeklong event, to be held in June 2007 and 2008. The Olympic-like games attract hundreds of police officers and firefighters from around the state.
The games could generate 1,200 to 1,500 hotel room bookings a night for a week and $4 million to $6 million in spending, Dunklee said.
“We’ve always felt it would be tremendous for the area,” he said. “We’re one of the larger participants in the games.”
Dunklee first made the pitch in June, and the sticking point was a nonrefundable bid fee of $50,000.
Now tourism officials are offering to pay $25,000, which would come from the visitors bureau’s $1.9 million marketing budget.
The remainder of the bid would be in the form of incentives, such as hotel room rebates, said Kate Parker, the bureau’s sports and product development manager.
The Tourist Development Council, a county-appointed advisory board, will decide Thursday afternoon whether to bid for the two-year contract.
Neither Charlotte nor Manatee counties considered bidding, mainly because of a lack of hotel space. But the bid fee also struck tourism officials in those counties as high.
If Sarasota wins, the games would bring athletes to school gyms, parks and ball fields around the county.
Local officers would likely make a good showing. The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office has won the Division Two title for the past 12 years. Manatee County and Charlotte County sheriff’s offices and Bradenton and Sarasota police departments also participated last year.
The games comprise more than 30 events, including track and field, firearms competitions, dominos, table tennis and “toughest competitor alive.”
If the games attracted the promised number of visitors, it would be one of the biggest events yet for Sarasota hotels.
Only John Deere’s national sales training meeting, which fills hotels for a week in October, is larger, said Stephanie Grosskreutz, director of operations for the visitors bureau.
She said the games’ hotel bookings would spill over into Manatee County.
Although Florida Law Enforcement Games says the event could generate up to 1,500 hotel bookings a night, it didn’t amount to quite that much in Jacksonville last year. The Convention and Visitors Bureau there reported an average 714 rooms per night over seven nights.
Jacksonville will host the games in 2006 for the second year in a row. Jacksonville paid $40,000 to make the bid with help from the local sports commission and a grant to the Florida Law Enforcement Games organization.
Sean Doherty, sports marketing manager for the Charlotte County Visitor’s Bureau, said he considered the number of hotel rooms required for the 2006-07 games and the nonrefundable fee, and decided to pass on a bid.
The promised number of room nights wasn’t worth $50,000, he said.
Dunklee said police chiefs and sheriffs in the region are prepared to help organize the games, but they aren’t allowed to raise the money on their own. “If they turn it down that’s fine,” he said of the council vote. “We’re not in a position to raise the money ourselves. They expect it to be a community event.”