Dick’s Sporting Goods Lone Star Shootout moving to Lewisville for 2012
Dick’s Sporting Goods Lone Star Shootout, the premier lacrosse event in North Texas, will be held Nov. 17-18 at Toyota of Lewisville Railroad Park. The event is expected to draw more than 100 teams at all levels of competition, and in 2011 featured a special appearance by the United States men’s national under-19 team.
Dallas Lacrosse launched this annual event to establish one of the top national youth lacrosse events in the South. Teams travel to the Shootout from as far away as Tennessee, Colorado and Illinois for two days of clinics and competition. More than 6,000 participants and spectators are expected in Lewisville for the shootout.
“We could not be more excited to hold this year’s event at Toyota of Lewisville Railroad Park,” said tournament director Gary DeSerrano of Dallas Lacrosse. “The park’s amenities, fields and size are perfect for hosting a national lacrosse tournament. We are confident that our teams, sponsors and spectators will be thrilled with the venue.”
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled netted stick called a crosse. Long a favorite in the eastern half of the United States, the sport has been rapidly gaining popularity in Texas during the past decade. Youth league participation has exploded in North Texas and most colleges in the state now have club lacrosse programs, including University of Texas and Texas A&M.
Dallas Lacrosse, a subsidiary of K&G Sports, operates lacrosse events, camps and tournaments across the United States. The Lone Star Shootout was established in 2009 and is its featured event each year. Dick’s Sporting Goods became the title sponsor in 2011.
Toyota of Lewisville Railroad Park opened in November 2009, as the largest capital project in Lewisville history. The 269-acre park features eight soccer fields, four baseball fields, four football fields, three concession stands, three manmade lakes, the city’s first skate park and the city’s first dog park. The city reached a 10-year naming rights agreement with Toyota of Lewisville in 2010.
Wow, 6,000 people over 2 days. I'm not sure how many hotel nights that equates to, but that's got to be a nice economic boost for the hotels and restaurants. I'm really proud of Railroad Park, and how it has stepped up the City's game with events like this.
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Anonymous
Posted: 2012/4/26 15:01 Updated: 2012/4/26 19:39
Re: A lot of hotel rooms
i am passing this on to the teams in TN that I know. how fun!
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Anonymous
Posted: 2012/4/26 15:51 Updated: 2012/4/26 19:41
Re: A lot of hotel rooms
Tourism and Parks staff worked for about four months to bring this event to Lewisville. While I would love to say it was our sparkling personalities and sales skills that won the day, the truth is that Toyota of Lewisville Railroad Park made this an easy choice for the tournament planners, who also considered Plano and Arlington.
This event will be held the weekend prior to Thanksgiving, which is traditionally the start of the slowest time of the year for our local hotels. Based on historic performance, we anticipate this tournament will produce more than 600 room-nights just from the teams and coaches. We have estimated $213,900 in economic impact for the City. These numbers do not include anticipated spectators, family and friends, so are very conservative; we should easily exceed those estimates.
Best of all, the City's participation is in-kind promotions and some services. We did not pay a bid fee, and the tournament is paying for use of the park. This is a one-year agreement, but both sides already are talking about future years.
- Lewisville Staff
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Anonymous
Posted: 2012/4/26 19:58 Updated: 2012/4/26 20:14
Re: A lot of hotel rooms
Do hope that any hotel runover will flow to Denton county towns. Denton and The Colony are great places for to send hotel visitors. always a good idea to keep money if not local at least in our county.
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Anonymous
Posted: 2012/4/27 0:01 Updated: 2012/4/27 7:39
Re: A lot of hotel rooms
With a peak night of about 500 rooms, there should not be any overflow outside of Lewisville. If there is, we do work regularly with Denton CVB and to a lesser extent with The Colony CVB, so the rooms would stay within the county. (FYI, there are more than 2,500 hotel rooms in Lewisville, including about 1,000 within two blocks of the Lewisville Convention Center.)
- Lewisville Staff
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Anonymous
Posted: 2012/4/26 19:09 Updated: 2012/4/26 19:42
Re: Massive Lacrosse Tournament Coming to Lewisville
a bit confused. when you click on the dallaslacrosse link, it says it is being held at the 5 star complex in the colony. am I missing something?
Re: Massive Lacrosse Tournament Coming to Lewisville
I suspect that is a remnant from the previous year, but I'm not sure. The logo for the event is from last year.
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Anonymous
Posted: 2012/4/27 0:07 Updated: 2012/4/27 7:40
Re: Massive Lacrosse Tournament Coming to Lewisville
You are correct. The event has been held at Five Star the past three years and the website has not yet been updated. Tourney officials just notified their sponsors on Monday of this week, and have been on the road at another event the past few days.
Reasons cited for choosing Toyota of Lewisville Railroad Park included: * More available fields, which means more teams in each bracket and no need for youngest teams to use half-fields. They will use all our soccer and football fields at the park for this event. * Public wireless service throughout the park. Previously it was available only at the ballfields area, but additional hotspots have been/are being installed. * Multiple concessions buildings with restrooms, to accommodate large crowds. * Overall size of park and quantity of parking. * More room for sponsor tents, and no permit fee required for sponsor tents under 400sf in area. * In-kind marketing support offered by the City. * Lewisville rocks! (Okay, we added that one, but it seems true enough.)
Re: Massive Lacrosse Tournament Coming to Lewisville
This is a really nice pick up.
Some questions for anyone in the know:
Will Corporate Dr. connect Waters Ridge and Railroad Street by the time the tournament begins? If not, will it be under construction? A completed connection could be helpful to encourage vistors to use the hotels at Corporate/I35E but construction on Railroad Street could make getting to and from the tournament a hassle.
It seems most of the nearby hotels at Corporate/I35E are extended stay suites while a lot of other hotels are at Vista Ridge. Access from the hotels at Vista Ridge is a bit awkward as it requires a Texas u-turn and about three miles of travel on the I35E access road. More direct access from Vista Ridge to the railroad park could build synergies for the hotels and restaurants for future events. The website for Hebron Station 121 shows a connection across the river but it doesn't appear to offer much through access to Hebron/Lakeside Cir. Are there any plans to provide more direct access from Vista Ridge to Railroad Park? Such an access route might also provide a means of access between Vista Ridge and Railroad park that would bypass the anticipated construction on I35E.
Re: Massive Lacrosse Tournament Coming to Lewisville
The section of Corporate Drive between Waters Ridge and Railroad Street will not be in place before the tournament, but it will be under construction at that time. The bid documents have been prepared for Council and will be presented within the next few weeks. With an estimated construction window of 12 months, we would expect the project to be completed about this time next year.
Tournament participants staying at mall-area hotels generally get to the park by taking FM 3040/Hebron to Railroad Street. Those staying at the 35E/Corporate properties do have a little bit more difficult access right now, but the extension of Corporate will fix that. Having the northern stretch of Railroad Street rebuilt, and the extension of Valley Ridge south of Business 121, also have helped with park access. Neither project was done when the park opened.