How the Quad Cities have become a destination for sports tourism

DAVENPORT, Iowa — Sports tourism around the country has almost returned to pre-pandemic levels, but here in the Quad Cities, local officials said the industry is the best it’s ever been.

Members of the industry gathered on Tuesday, Feb. 11 to learn more about why the Quad Cities have become so attractive for sporting events.

“We have a new brand, Sports QC powered by Visit Quad Cities. We have a group of Sports QC advisory group members that are here today. We have a new website, we have a strategy,” Visit Quad Cities Vice President of Business Joan Kranovich said.

All of that dates back to 2019 when Visit Quad Cities enlisted the help of Jon Schmieder, founder of the Huddle Up Group.

“They reached out to us and they said, ‘Hey, we’d like somebody to put another set of eyes because we live here, we think we’re doing the right things, but come help us compare ourselves and who are we competing, what’s our creative set,’” Schmieder said.

Schmieder created a plan for Visit Quad Cities that included building a sports brand and creating more facilities for sporting events. Now, they want to capitalize on that success in the future.

“If we intentionally look to 10 years from now, what do we need to do today, as in Visit Quad Cities and Sports Quad Cities, what should we be investing in?” Schmieder said.

Schmieder is measuring the current effective and future potential of sports tourism by evaluating the quality of facilities, destination strength, organization structure and events. Kranovich said that with the help from Huddle Up, there are more good things still to come in the Quad Cities.

“I hope we can continue to make strides with our Sports QC advisory group and then come together with that Sports QC master planning of the facilities, work with our cities, work with the developers, work with the people that are running these venues and what is their next step,” Kranovich said.

According to Huddle Up, cheerleading generates the most revenue for the host city, while basketball generates the least.