ECSC Sports’ efforts fuel busy spring sports season in Columbia SC
March 6, 2025
From March through May, Experience Columbia SC Sports is welcoming over a dozen events to the Columbia region, with over 31,000 expected attendees using more than 4,000 hotel room nights and generating an estimated economic impact of almost $5 million.
Beginning with a couple rollover events from the end of February featuring dance and disc golf, the full spring slate continues this weekend with the 2025 Carolina Classic and 2025 Men’s State Meet gymnastics event, which is set to welcome about 3,000 attendees.
The roster of events to come includes a smattering of different types of sports. From a road race to a rodeo, softball to soccer, tennis to track and field, plus pickleball, volleyball, basketball and more, the next three months truly highlight the diverse array of athletics Columbia and its surrounding areas are equipped to accommodate.
“First and foremost, we would not be able to host any events at all if it weren’t for our partners at various academic institutions, the different regional municipalities and parks and recreation commissions, the South Carolina State Fairgrounds and, of course, the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center,” said Anna Gasperecz, sports development manager for ECSC Sports. “We do not own any of these facilities, so we have to rely on the support of these partnerships to make these events happen.”
When pursuing sports events, ECSC Sports Executive Director Scott Powers says they utilize a multi-effort approach. “From attending sports tourism tradeshows and building relationships with the SC Sports Alliance for referrals to responding to RFPs with bid proposals, rights fees and conducting site visits of our local facilities, there’s a lot that goes into getting our destination in front of sports event planners,” he said. “Then there’s also partnering with large annual events and collaborating on championship bids with local colleges and universities. And, at times, an event owner may proactively approach us.”
Researching, bidding on and securing an event is only half the battle. Once the selection has been made, ECSC Sports then works alongside each client to provide hotel proposals, venue recommendations, pre-event marketing and promotion to include press releases, advertising, social media, inclusion on the events calendar, etc., in-market activations like welcome tents and tables, visitor information tables, signage, street pole banners and more, the scope of which varies from client to client. All this, plus ensuring a memorable event experience for all involved.
The upcoming season sees a healthy mix of events with whom ECSC Sports has a long relationship, events made possible by team rankings and some that will be hosted here for the very first time.
The 52nd Annual Governor’s Cup Road Race, the 36th Annual The Clash: AVP Grass Tour volleyball tournament and 15th Annual Blythewood DOKO Championship Spring Rodeo are three long-standing community events ECSC Sports has supported for 16, 19 and 8 years, respectively. When it comes to NCAA championship events, early rounds are played on the campuses of higher ranked teams, with the exception of men’s basketball. In such instances, ECSC Sports steps in with partner organizations as soon as that call is made and this month, we’ll welcome the first and second rounds of the Women’s Basketball Tournament. The newcomers this spring include the Carolina Classic and SC Men’s State Meet, the inaugural Professional Pickleball Association’s Challenger Series, 2025 ISSA Southeastern USA Championships (softball) and SIAC Track & Field Championship, which collectively are expected to draw 5,700 attendees using more than 1,700 hotel room nights and generate over $1.5 million in economic impact.
We’ll see more than youth, college and amateur competitors in their respective fields this spring, too. The ISSA Southeastern USA Championships in April and the 2025 SC Senior Games Sports Classic taking place across five weekends in April and May each feature more seasoned athletes. The latter event spent more than 40 years using Francis Marion University in Florence as its venue before relocating to Columbia last year. The five weeks of games will result in more than $300k in economic impact alone.
Though large-scale events like the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament and the 2024 Rivals in Red tour certainly boost the local economy and put Columbia in the national and global spotlight, the two-person team at Experience Columbia SC Sports is constantly working behind the scenes to source, pursue, support and host a range of sporting events all year, each year, cultivating and sustaining a thriving sports scene that the entire region benefits from in turn.
About Experience Columbia SC Sports
The mission of Experience Columbia SC Sports is to strengthen the area’s economy by marketing and selling the region as a premier destination for sporting events, partnering with local sports organizations to grow and develop existing events and recruiting new events that provide an economic benefit to the region by generating room nights, food and beverage sales and associated tax revenues. For more information, please visit www.columbiascsports.com.
