A national archery tournament is coming to Springfield this week, and it’s expected to have a $1.35 million economic impact on the area.
The USA Archery Target Nationals and U.S. Open will be held Thursday through Sunday, August 14-17, at Betty & Bobby Allison Sports Town, 209 Airport Blvd.
The event was the first one that Stan Adams, director of sports business development for the Greater Springfield Area Sports Commission, said he went after when he began his job a little over a year and a half ago. He said Allison Sports Town is the perfect place to host an event like this one.
"It's kind of been more of our niche facility out here," he said. "We hosted USA Rugby out here early May. That was about 14 teams, 35 people on a team, too, so it's kind of — I know, traditionally you come out here, you look at, you see the soccer fields, normal fields, but it's kind of, because it's so wide open and it allows us to kind of do whatever are kind of, you know, come to our mind, and that gives us a real competitive advantage."
He said there’s plenty of parking, an indoor facility, and full concession stands that are able to sell alcohol.
He hopes they’ll be able to get the national tournament back for a second year and to host other archery events. The deal they have with Archery USA is for one year with a second year option, according to Adams. And he hopes it leads to other similar events in the city.
"Us being able to host this one national event is going to open us up to so many more archery events," he said, "whether it be with USA Archery or all the other national archery organizations."
He said he's surprised the city hasn't hosted any archery events before now since the area has a lot of archers, and the Archery Hall of Fame is located at Bass Pro Shops in Springfield.
Adams said the archery tournament this week in Springfield will feature national competitors, international competitors trying to get points for the world rankings and some possible future para-Olympians.
USA Archery CEO Rod Menzer said in a welcome statement that there will be athletes at the tournament who will go to Canada for the World Archery Youth Championships August 17-24 as well as archers representing the USA at the World Archery Championships next month in Korea and World Archery Para Championships.
The cost to bring the tournament to the city was approximately $35,000, according to Adams, which he said is less expensive than it typically costs to host an event of that size. Allison Sports Town worked with them on rental costs, he said, and they were able to use Missouri's Amateur Sporting Tax Credit Program.
"It really makes it really affordable for us to host this multiple years," said Adams.
