Valley Forge Sports Celebrates Record Year, Looks to Future
Bureau holds annual luncheon at Greater Philadelphia Expo Center
Posted On: October 25, 2024 By :The Valley Forge Tourism & Convention Board celebrated what is a record year in 2024 and looked ahead to a few major sports events coming to Montgomery County in 2025 at its annual luncheon on Friday.
Valley Forge is on pace to hit approximately 106,000 room nights for sports-related events, said Rachel Dailey, Valley Forge Tourism associate director of sports. It will be the fourth year in a row the bureau sets a record for sports-related economic impact, led by the YMCA National Gymnastics Championship & Invitational, which generated an estimated 6,000 room nights and close to $7 million in economic impact.
Valley Forge Sports hosted over 100 events this year with 20 of them being new events. The Valley Forge Sports team had a record-breaking summer, with 18 different sports and 13 events new to the area.
“There’s a record of events exceeding their own expectations when they come here just from ease of access,” Dailey said. “The experience of people coming to a tournament has become more important with what’s available to do rather than just go to the tournament and get pizza and then go back to the hotel. We have something for everyone here.”
One of the major 2025 events emphasized was the U.S. Youth Soccer Eastern President’s Cup, which will be at local sports complex The Proving Grounds with 15 state champions competing for a spot in the national finals. The event was in Valley Forge in 2023 and broke records for attendance at the time.
Valley Forge will also be the home for next year’s PGA Tour Truist Championship, which will be at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, the oldest country club in the United States. Eric Chaves, PGA Tour director of business operations, said an anticipated almost 40,000 visitors will stay in the county during the event.
Valley Forge will host the Truist Championship while the normal host course in Charlotte prepares for the PGA Championship — an event that in 2026 heads to the Philadelphia region and Aronimink Golf Club. Meg Kane, host city executive for Philadelphia Soccer 2026, also touched on what the region can expect during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
A record 625 people were on hand for the annual luncheon at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center at Oaks, which had author and entrepreneur Mick Ebeling as its guest speaker. The theme of the luncheon was ‘possible.’
“We weren’t sure if a 650-person luncheon was possible, especially two years ago during Covid,” said Tessa Robinson, communications specialist with the VFTCB. “The idea of making things exciting, setting our sights on something that might not seem possible and then making it happen, even if everybody around you thinks you’re never going to be able to make that happen … that’s kind of where we wanted to go as our organization.”
The luncheon has been a fixture for Valley Forge but about a decade ago, the bureau re-committed to making it a fuller event that includes pre- and post-luncheon events. Other than a two-year break because of the pandemic, the event has grown each of the past seven years. Sports has continued to grow during that time from what was a one-person sports operation bringing in 45,000 room nights in a year.
“From the sports side, our team is not stopping,” said Jon Scheuren, director of sports. “We’re not at our top yet, we’re growing still. I think everyone expects us to level out, but we’re still growing year over year.”
That growth comes from working with area stakeholders, Scheuren said, along with emphasizing its location within major Northeastern population centers.
“We’ve created such great partnerships with our facilities in our area to open up to the ideas of having these big events,” he said. “And two, we learned from Covid how we can tick all the boxes of what you’re looking at … we have all the hotel needs that you’re going to have. We have the facility needs, but we’re also affordable. And then there’s family friendly things to do around here. So I think it just checks all the boxes for everyone.”
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