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Richmond Volleyball Club will host two volleyball tournaments this weekend that are expected to bring 10,000 visitors to the Richmond metro area and generate more than $5 million, Sports Backers estimated. The 26th Annual Boys East Coast Championship volleyball tournament and the 13th annual South Atlantic Championships volleyball tournament will feature more than 4,000 junior volleyball players — about 320 teams — at three facilities, including RVC Byrdhill in Lakeside.
The girls’ teams rotate through the three facilities — the Greater Richmond Convention Center, RVC Byrdhill and RVC Stonebridge, said RVC Director of Tournaments and Facilities Skip Weston.
Teams travel from across the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico to claim space in the Greater Richmond Convention Center to eat and relax.
“Since the world’s largest softball tournament has shrunk, we’re bringing people into town that wouldn’t normally be in town,” Weston said about the tournament’s benefit to the area.
Sports tournaments benefit various Henrico County industries, said Henrico County Recreation and Parks Division’s Tourism Supervisor Dawn Miller.
“You see the impacts from one side of the county all the way to the other,” she said. “You have athletes who are eating in our restaurants, and their families are eating in our restaurants, they are shopping in our malls and our boutique retail, they’re going to our movie theaters. So all of that is sort of a result of them being here. In the end, sports tourism can and usually does lead to other types of tourism,” such as visits to museums and historic sites.
Henrico County has seen a 60 percent increase in economic impact from sports tourism since 2012, when the tourism office opened, Miller said. In 2018, Henrico County hosted more than 170 tournaments that generated more than $53.4 million in local spending, and in 2019, the tourism department expects to host more than 180 tournaments. That $53.4 million does not include revenue from sports that the Recreation and Parks division does not have a role in, such as races at the Richmond Raceway or the Players’ Development Academy tournaments, she said.
The opening of Glover Park in Glen Allen last year has helped attract more tournaments, Miller said, because it has turf fields. If it rains – as it did this year at times during the Jefferson Cup soccer tournament – teams can continue to play, she said. RVC uses the sand volleyball pits at Glover Park, which opened last year, to host tournaments and play, Miller said. RVC is also a fiscal partner with the county for the park.
Last year, Henrico County hosted 32 tournaments at Glover Park once it opened, she said, and had six straight weekends of soccer events.
Youth sports do not have to pay to play in Henrico County, Miller said, which helps attract tournaments, since most other locales charge.
The Recreation and Park division also has almost 100 percent retention of tournaments, she said, generally only losing tournaments that rotate through different locations.
Two national quidditch tournaments will be held in Henrico this summer, Miller said.
The International Quidditch Association Pan-American Games will be in July. The IQA expects at least 10 teams from North and South America to attend, most which will be national teams. This event lasts four days.
The Major League Quidditch Championship will be in August, she said. The top 12 teams will be invited.
This weekend's BECC tournament is part of the USA Volleyball qualification process used to determine teams in the open division at the Boys’ Junior National Championships.
Two volleyball players to be honored
The tournament also will directly benefit two Richmond students.
Two travel volleyball competitors, Devon Robinson and Cat Ward, will be presented with the Atlantic Union Bank “Love of the Game” award at the tournaments on Monday. Each award includes $1,000 for travel expenses or scholarships for the players. The awards are given annually to two junior players who demonstrate commitment, respect and good sportsmanship.
Devon Robinson competes with RVC; he started playing volleyball two years ago.
“Devon is a committed, hard-working player who started as a middle and quickly earned his way into an outside spot on his team for maximum play time,” his coach, Kevin Pond, said. “He has figured out every open gym in the area to essentially be on the court every day. His growth over the course of two years is nothing short of amazing.”
Cat Ward has played volleyball for six years, making and made an RVC Girls National team her freshman year.
“Cat is one of the hardest working kids in practice. She didn’t make a national team after that year, but never complained and continued to work hard competing on RVC Zonal teams,” her coach Sherman Chung said. “Her on-court personality is determined, upbeat, supportive of her teammates.”
