Bryan-College Station battles to keep hosting 7-on-7 tournament

  • By MATTHEW WATKINS

  • Posted: Thursday, February 2, 2012 7:00 a.m.
  • Text size: A A A


The Texas A&M football team hauled in another strong recruiting class Wednesday, and some say an on-campus high school football tournament helped them do it.


But an NCAA rule change will block the tournament from campus after 2012, worrying Aggie football fans and also local government officials who say the event is valuable to the tourism and hospitality industries.


A&M has hosted the Fox Sports Southwest 7-on-7 Texas State Championship on its practice fields every year since 1998, giving many high school players their first tastes of Aggieland. Led by the Bryan-College Station Convention and Visitors Bureau, a group of local officials are working to keep the tournament in the Brazos Valley.


The tournament hosts 128 teams of high schoolers each year, plus coaches, sponsors and media. Many attendees stay in town for three days.


"These teams all come in and stay at our hotels, eat at our restaurants and spend money at our shopping venues," said Kindra Fry, director of sales at the Convention and Visitors Bureau.


The event has to move from campus because of a new NCAA rule that prohibits 7-on-7 games from being played at colleges. The NCAA on Tuesday granted A&M a one-year reprieve for 2012, but the tournament will have to find a new home for 2013.


City officials said College Station will submit a bid to host the tournament here, but they expect competition from cities like Frisco, Round Rock and San Antonio.


Fry, who is preparing the bid, said most of the games would be played at Veterans Park, with the championship game likely in a local high school stadium. She said the Convention and Visitors Bureau will emphasize College Station's central location among Texas' major cities and the inexpensive eating and lodging options the community provides.


The city of College Station is also exploring whether to use hotel occupancy tax funds to improve the Veterans Park fields. Assistant City Manager Frank Simpson said Wednesday that those improvements would be focused on keeping 7-on-7, but also attracting more events like it.


Youth sports can be a valuable boost to the local economy, especially because they often occur during the otherwise slow summer months, city officials said. According to a list provided by the city, College Station will host soccer, softball, baseball, basketball and Ultimate Frisbee tournaments between now and July. Those events will bring more than 900 out-of-town teams into the city.


"The youth sports market is just incredible," Simpson said.


To attract more events, College Station might also look into building a multi-use venue in town similar to Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, which seats 20,000 and is home to a Major League Soccer franchise. The College Station park would likely be smaller, and city officials stress that the idea is only being considered.


The use of hotel occupancy tax dollars is strictly limited, Simpson said, and the city is working with experts and the state to determine what they can or can't spend it on.


In the meantime, the Convention and Visitors Bureau expects to submit its bid to host the tournament by July. Members of the 7-on-7 tournament's governing board didn't return messages seeking comment on Wednesday, but local officials expect the group to make a decision in August or September.

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