Category: On Assignment

On Assignment — SportsTravel — News, Insight and Analysis for the Sports-Event Industry

WomensFinalFourMinneapolis
The 2022 NCAA Women's Championship Game in Minneapolis was played in front of a sellout crowd as South Carolina beat UConn for its second national title. Photo by Matt Traub / SportsTravel

Women’s Final Four Shines Spotlight on Minnesota’s Basketball Culture

The 27-year wait was worth it for the basketball-mad region of Minneapolis-St. Paul after a Women’s Final Four that was in many ways the first major event that the city was able to organize since the pandemic. More than 36,000 fans attended games at the Target Center between the two semifinals on April 1 and […]

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How Utah Capitalized on Beijing’s Olympic Spectator Ban

When Beijing’s organizers decided to ban foreign spectators from attending the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, it shone an even brighter spotlight on a previous host — with many hoping that it can repeat those hosting duties in the future. Families have descended for watch parties every night in Park City, Utah, where the […]

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How Tulsa Landed the USA BMX Headquarters

Flash back 10 years. USA BMX, the national governing body for the sport, was headquartered at its longtime home in Gilbert, Arizona. As the sport grew in popularity — one of the fastest-growing sports in the past decade, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association — so did the needs of the organization. More tracks […]

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Puerto Rico: A Rich Sports History

You may think that Puerto Rico is a golf escape and yes, that is largely true. The Puerto Rico Open will celebrate its 15th anniversary in early March, having generated $5.7 million for the economy and creating more than 1,000 direct and indirect jobs. With 16 courses open to the public, golf has boomed on the […]

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On Assignment: A Stadium Shows Its Versatility

It can be one of the little annoyances that fans can experience either in the stadium or watching on television: Seeing the lines of one sport—washed out or not—on the field as you watch action from a different sport. That annoyance is what made the field for the recent LA Sevens international rugby match at […]

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On Assignment: Four Days of Golf, A Year in the Making

When fans enter the gates at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, they can gawk at the elevation changes and some of the most historic holes in championship golf. They can enjoy activations and different sponsorship stands at almost every fairway. And if they think because the PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational is a four-day affair that […]

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On Assignment: The Maine Ingredients

Maine may be off in a corner, but that doesn’t mean event organizers should treat it any less seriously as a destination for sports events. That’s something I saw firsthand on a recent trip to the Pine Tree State to witness three events, each of which speaks to the resources available in the region and […]

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Ireland US Soccer
The U.S. soccer team poses for a photo before an international friendly soccer match against Ireland in Pasadena, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo)

U.S. Women’s Soccer Victory Tour Brings Champions to Fans

What some programs or leagues or teams wish would happen over a period of years hit the United States women’s national soccer team within a month’s time. Already going into the FIFA Women’s World Cup with the label of favorites and defending champions, the team not only successfully defended its title, but did so with […]

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