Organizers report tournament attendance and visitor spending in city presentations; staff outlines economic‑survey findings

Several event organizers and staff presented post‑event summaries and economic‑survey results to the Parks, Recreation and Community Resources Advisory Commission on Oct. 7, describing visitor origin, lodging patterns and local spending during recent tournaments.

Staff economic survey Special Events staff reported survey outreach and responses collected at the commission’s request. Survey highlights presented by staff included: AAU (22 responses) — roughly half of respondents traveled from out of state; most parties were three to four people and a majority stayed three or more nights; most respondents spent $1,000 or more excluding lodging. AVP (154 responses) — again, a majority were from out of state, nearly 80 respondents stayed three or more nights; about 40% reported spending $1,000 or more excluding lodging. JVABBCA (229 responses) — about 85% of respondents stayed three or more nights and roughly half reported spending $1,000 or more excluding lodging. Across surveys a high share of respondents said they visited businesses they probably would not have if not for the tournament.

Organizer reports - Denny Lennon (AAU): Described long history of the Hermosa event, programming such as Beach Nation clinics and King/Queen of the Court, and national committee participation; he noted AAU’s interest in helping the event grow and in improving survey response rates. - Jeff Conover (AVP representative): Reported that AVP used Beach Nation clinics, fielded 8,114 unique players across associated events, used 53 courts during the event week, and that 58% of survey respondents came from outside California. He also described social media reach and logistics coordination with city staff. - Jess Smith (JVABBCA): Said JVABBCA had one of its best years, reporting approximately 700-plus teams across pairs and club divisions, with roughly 95% of teams from out of state. - David Bridal (SoCal Beach Foundation) and other local event organizers also presented participant counts and partnership notes, including discounts or offers secured with local businesses for tournament attendees.

Commission discussion and next steps Commissioners thanked staff for the survey work and suggested staff and event producers share more detailed, aggregated comments and criticisms (bathroom cleanliness, parking difficulty and food cost/availability) with local businesses and the Chamber of Commerce. Commissioners and producers discussed possibilities for negotiated hotel blocks, volunteer parking guidance and participant communications to reduce local friction in future events.

Ending: Staff said it can use survey responses to project total economic impacts by extrapolating from sample responses and will pursue higher response rates in future events; event producers agreed to improve on-site survey outreach and deepen coordination with the city on parking and visitor guidance.