Visit Pensacola CEP Darren Schaefer is excited for the Sun Belt Conference men’s and women’s basketball tournaments to begin this week.
“Starting Wednesday, we will have 12 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams from the Sunbelt Conference here for the basketball championship,” he said on WCOA this morning. “And not only will they be here, but this year, the bands and the cheer teams will be here as well. So we’re excited to have just that game experience taken to the next level.”
He talked about how important the basketball tournaments are for our tourism.
“We certainly know from research where our audience is from, where most of our visitors come from, those cities and from what distance, but an event like Sunbelt is bringing people here for the first time,” Schaefer said. “That’s what’s a great thing about events and sports events in particular. We’re bringing people here for the very first time. And so we have a chance to impress them, which we continually do, and have the opportunity to create new repeat visitors for the area.”
