Category: Main Feature

Main Feature — SportsTravel — News, Insight and Analysis for the Sports-Event Industry

NFL Brazil
The NFL made its inaugural trip to Brazil when the Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers clashed at Neo Quimica Arena in Sao Paulo on September 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
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Inside the NFL’s International Expansion Plans

It was during last season that the National Football League played its 50th regular-season game outside of the United States, 18 years after its first. It will certainly not take that long to get the next 50 under its belt. The league’s opening weekend featured a game in Sao Paulo, Brazil, as the Philadelphia Eagles […]

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TEAMS Banner
The TEAMS Conference was at the Anaheim Convention Center in California for 2024. (Photo by Jared Wickerham)

TEAMS Conference & Expo Announces Hosts for 2030, 2031

Northstar Meetings Group has announced two future sites for the TEAMS Conference & Expo, the world’s largest gathering of sports-event organizers, taking the annual event to a pair of markets that reflect the vitality of the sports-related travel market. Along with previously announced host cities, the conference has now announced its host locations through 2031. […]

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Fort Wayne DIII Basketball Championship Aerial
The NCAA Division III National Championship game has found a home in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in recent years. Photo courtesy of Visit Fort Wayne

Why Hosting NCAA Championships Are Game Changing For Destinations

As the NCAA enters the final month of its deliberation on which cities will be the hosts for its next championship bid cycle for hundreds of events across all three divisions, destinations around the country anxiously await news of the status of their bids. It’s quite a mix of cities that are bidding to host […]

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Visit Greenville SEC basketball
Greenville, South Carolina, has become a home to the SEC Women's Basketball Tournament, having hosted the event six times in the past eight years. It will again be the site in 2025. Photo courtesy of Visit Greenville
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Sports Commissions Punching Above Their Weight

The sports tourism industry continues to rise to new levels with each passing year, as it has not only recovered from COVID, but surpassed the pre-COVID years in many aspects. However, the upswing in sports business being brought into destinations has not correlated directly to local CVBs and sports commissions expanding their dedicated sports staff. […]

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Michigan Penn St Football
Fireworks go off over Beaver Stadium as Penn State hosts Michigan in State College, Pennsylvania, in October 2019. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

2024’s Best Places to Watch a College Football Game

College football season looks different than ever before after two years of realignment frenzy. With the Pac-12 Conference all but disbanded and mega-conferences stretching from coast to coast, SportsTravel is taking a different approach this fall. With a massive season about to get underway, we’ve picked out a series of destinations that would be great […]

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Southern Miss Tailgate
The tailgating scene around Southern Miss was packed hours before kickoff of Saturday's home opener for the Golden Eagles in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Photo by Matt Traub/SportsTravel

‘To The Top’ in Hattiesburg, Mississippi

HATTIESBURG, MISSISSIPPI — Tailgating before a college football game in the South is an experience of which few can compare. At the University of Southern Mississippi, it’s music of all genres blared from tent to tent. It’s the sound of grilling and the smell of various meats no matter where you turn with those in […]

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Cooperstown All-Star Village
Cooperstown All-Star Village is one of the many venues that Unrivaled Sports has acquired since its inception. Photo courtesy of Unrivaled Sports

Unrivaled Sports Makes a Splash on Youth Sports Scene

When Josh Harris and David Blitzer created Unrivaled Sports, it wasn’t just a catchy name. The duo founded Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment in September 2017. HBSE now owns and operates the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, the Prudential Cente, the esports organization Dignitas and holds a minority stake in the Joe […]

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Mission Viejo signing
Members of the Netherlands Olympic Committee and the city of Mission Viejo sign a partnership agreement for training sites leading up to 2028. Photo by Jason Gewirtz

A Marriage Made in Orange: Mission Viejo and the Dutch Olympic Team

PARIS — Events like the Olympic Games are significant boons to the host city. But lost in the story of the host city for mega sporting events is the opportunity for smaller destinations to get their own piece of the action. This week in Paris, an unlikely partnership formed between the Netherlands Olympic Committee and […]

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Los Angeles 2024
Competitiors in the men's 5,000 meter event at the 1984 Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles circle past the Olympic torch during the race on August 11, 1984. Los Angeles in 2028 will join London and Paris as the only three-time hosts of the Olympic Summer Games. (AP Photo, File)

U.S. Olympic Movement Focuses Its Eyes Toward LA28

Yes, the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games are in Paris and yes, competition begins in less than a week and yes, there will be plenty of focus on the present. Yet within the U.S. Olympic movement, there is also a sense that this is just the preamble. Paris is a chance to re-light the […]

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Fencing Palais
Fencing at the Grand Palais was one of the most popular fan experiences in the first week of the Olympic Summer Games in Paris. Photo by Matt Traub/SportsTravel

2024 Olympics: Grades for the Games

With the Olympic movement at an inflection point in the minds of many experts, the 2024 Summer Games in Paris were vital for the International Olympic Committee to prove to the world that it is still relevant and attractive for major worldwide cities to have an interest in hosting. Based on SportsTravel’s experience in Paris […]

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