Pensacola Sports
Pensacola Sports has a new President and CEO, and he’s not really new at all. Jason Libbert, who spent 12 years with the organization before stepping away, sat down on Rick’s Blog Live this week to talk about taking the reins from longtime leader Ray Palmer on October 1.
Libbert said his return to Pensacola Sports came down to belief in the mission.
“We make such a difference economically, but locally, I mean the all-star games, the senior scholar banquet where we give over a hundred thousand dollars in scholarships to our high school seniors. So I just believe in it.”
The Double Bridge Run sells out year after year.
- This year’s race pulled in 5,000 runners from 48 states, and organizers are chasing the final two to complete the set. Libberts credits a wide web of partners—the cities of Pensacola and Gulf Breeze, Santa Rosa Island Authority, and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office—for making it, in his words, the best 15K in the country.
Several Pensacola Sports events operate on Tourist Development Council (TDC) dollars, and Libbert noted the organization’s reputation has been one of its biggest assets in keeping that funding flow steady
His priorities heading into October 1 start simple, in his own words: “Don’t mess it up.” Libbert said he’s already sitting in on staff and board meetings, digging into finances and internal processes, before laying out any changes to the group’s strategy once he’s officially in charge.
- He’s also leaning on relationships built over more than a decade in the role, including his continued volunteer work with the sports service and grant committee even after he left the organization the first time. Those national connections, he said, are what brought SEC and Sun Belt events to town in the first place, and keeping them intact is job one.
