Yearlong study suggests Danville could see $400,000 annual boost from sports tourism

DANVILLE, Va. (WSET) — A yearlong report between a local tourism group called Visit SoSi and consulting organization called The Huddle Group recommends that Danville needs to upgrade existing sports structures to host more events.

Dan Daniel Memorial Park, Averett football fields and Ballou Park are just some of the areas that can be used as vessels for large sporting events.

They also suggest building an indoor mixed-use court facility to house regional tournaments.

According to the report, the city could generate over $400,000 a year in tourism revenue if they implement their recommendations.

Both the enhancements and the new court would be funded through hotel taxes and grants.

Jon Schmieder, the CEO of The Huddle Group, said that they wanted to create this plan so that Danville residents wouldn’t have to pay more.

“We usually try to stay away from the citizens if you can, you want to create that tourism improvement district which is funded by visitors,” Schmieder said.

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He mentioned that in other cities that they’ve worked with, the changes were funded through grants and hotel taxes.

“Most of the time it’s an improvement district that again taxes the hotel stays or it’s a hotel tax or part of that that goes into it. It’s very rarely like a property tax on the citizens or a sales tax that the citizens will pay the most of,” Schmieder said.

Schmieder mentioned that with all the new hotels going up in Danville, he hopes the city can adopt the plan and use tourism revenue to help fund the enhancements.

Sara Satterfield, a Danville resident, hopes that this is true.

“You know house expenses, rent, mortgage, bills, life’s really hard right now. So having to pay extra taxes for this might make the community a little unhappy,” Satterfield said.

The proposed plan says that the city should add lights and turf to outside facilities, as well as build an indoor court that can hold large basketball, volleyball and pickleball courts for tournaments and yearlong activities.

Julie Burnett is also a local resident and is in full support of this plan.

“It’s great for the children, it’s great for adults, so when you have the indoor facility as well as outdoor facilities it just makes Danville a better place to live,” Burnett said.