The Metropolitan Richmond Sports Backers has been recognized as the leader in its industry, receiving the National Association of Sports Commissions' (NASC) 2006 Member of the Year award. The NASC made the announcement last Wednesday during its annual Sports Event Symposium in Lexington, KY. "This milestone represents a tremendous accomplishment for our organization and there is no reason that we can't use this award as a launching pad to grow the benefits our region receives from sports tourism," said Sports Backers president Jay Poole. "We are fortunate to have a committed staff that is constantly working on ways to improve the performance of everything we do as an organization."

The Sports Commission of the Year award recognizes the NASC member that has had the most outstanding impact on its local community through sporting events based on the following criteria:

Quality of the sporting events brought to the community based on: community interest, size of event in relation to community size, and the impact the event had on the community.

Events from which the community as a whole or significant number of area residents received benefit.

Evidence that these activities benefited community organizations financially or otherwise.

A panel of association members reviewed all nominations. More than 270 cities are members of the NASC - the sports event industry's leading networking organization. Past winners of the award include the sports commissions from the cities of St. Louis, Atlanta, and Nashville.

"It was very difficult to judge the member of the year award because so many cities produce such high quality events," said St. Louis Sports Commission President Frank Viverito, who was one of the award judges, "but the Metropolitan Richmond Sports Backers distinguished themselves by their list of accomplishments that illustrates their comprehensive strategy to reap the benefits of sports tourism in their region."

In 2006, the Sports Backers are involved with 35 different events with 79,000 participants and 262,000 spectators, generating over $35 million in economic impact. The Sports Backers own four events that include: the Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10k, SunTrust Richmond Marathon, Capital One Adventure Games and McDonald's X-Country Festival at Maymont. Among the organizations other major programs are:

Indoor Sports Tournament Center - The Sports Backers purchased $500,000 of portable sports flooring and related equipment to convert the Greater Richmond Convention Center into a sports tournament center.

Sports Incubator Program - The Sports Backers created this program to provide initial start-up marketing funds allowing local sports organizations to create new events that have the potential to attract significant numbers of out-of-town participants to the area.

Bid On Events - The Sports Backers have been involved with 15 events that are coming to the region during the next five years that include the 2006 and 2007 Action Sports World Tour, the 2008-2012 CAA Basketball Tournament and the 2006 and 2007 North American Cup Fencing Tournaments.

Sports Tourism Marketing Grants--The Sports Backers are providing 15 grants for a total of $40,000 to area sports organizations to help expand the marketing of existing sports tourism events in our community.

In addition to growing sports tourism, the organization manages the Times-Dispatch/Sports Backers Scholarship program that annually provides $31,000 in college scholarships to area student athletes. The Sports Backers also help motivate thousands of area youth to be more active on a regular basis through our Fit For Life youth running program.

Sports Backers is a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit organization founded in October 1991 to develop a better community through sports. The mission of the organization is to "stimulate the local economy by bringing sporting events to the region to benefit our residents." This mission is accomplished by focusing on three main strategic objectives:

1. Attracting, creating and improving significant sporting events
2. Serving as the catalyst for building superior sports facilities
3. Aiding area youth through sports outreach programs

"As a charitable non-profit organization, the success of the Metropolitan Richmond Sports Backers has been made possible through the support of thousands of volunteers, hundreds of contributors, dozens of sponsors, the local governments, dozens of local sports organizations and partnerships with local non- profit organizations," said Sports Backers executive director Jon Lugbill.