St. Lawrence County looks to lean into sports tourism

CANTON, New York (WWNY) – With 4 colleges within 10 miles of one another, St. Lawrence County wants to bring in more sporting events and tournaments. It’s called sports tourism.

“We’ve basically identified that there’s a lot of assets in our region that are underutilized,” said Tiffani Amo, Director of Sports Tourism.

The St. Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce hopes to bring in tourists by partnering with the 4 local colleges with top-notch athletic facilities.

“The idea is to align our sport tourism efforts with what works for the community. What do the communities want to see? What do the residents who live here want to see? Like how do they want these assets to be used,” said Amo.

Ideas include hosting athletes and fans of non-traditional sports, like hiking, cycling, and triathlons. They’re also looking at more youth soccer and baseball tournaments.

“It’s not that we expect to be the next Lake Placid, we aren’t looking to host the Olympics. We’re just trying to figure out what aligns with our way of life here in St. Lawrence County, what do we want to see more of,” said Amo.

The area had a taste of sports tourism in 2023 when the FISU World University Games brought in 2,000 athletes to Potsdam and Canton for 11 days of hockey.

One college that is involved in the sports tourism initiative is SUNY Canton, and they say they have all of these beautiful fields, so why not use them?

“So why not show them off to the rest of the world? Why not invite folks to come and enjoy what we have to offer,” said Lenore VanderZee, Vice President of Strategic Relations and Communications at SUNY Canton.

College officials also think more events could have more people looking at SUNY Canton, perhaps attending as students.

“Hopefully we can encourage them to come back in the longer term,” said VanderZee.

The county is currently working with a sports tourism consultant to figure out the next steps.

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