The City of Virginia Beach entered into a three-year partnership with the NFL's Washington Redskins to plan, produce and implement the Redskins Beach Blitz, an interactive fan-festival weekend. More than 40 players and coaches from the Washington Redskins came to Virginia Beach on June 2-4, 2006 to celebrate the First Annual Redkins Beach Blitz Weekend. In the planning process, it was determined that five, brand new, marquee events would take place over the three-day weekend.
By partnering two of the State of Virginia's powerhouse marketing engines, the City of Virginia Beach, a nationally recognized tourist hot-spot and the Washington Redskins, one of the most profitable, successful brands in the NFL, a mutually beneficial partnership was born. In its first year, the 2006 event brought in more than 5,000 attendees from across the nation with an estimated economic impact of $2.6 million.
2006 Weekend Events Included:
• Beach Blitz Football Challenge Based on the NFL Experience,
which is only operational at the SuperBowl and Pro Bowl, the Beach
Blitz Football Challenge featured interactive games, clinics by Players,
Coaches and Cheerleaders and Autograph Sessions. Fans could see
what it is like to be in the NFL by trying their hand at "The Field Goal
Kick," "Quarterback Challenge," "Halfback Option" and much more.
• Beach Blitz Gala – The Beach Blitz Black Tie Gala was the Official Kick
-Off to the fan festival weekend. Featuring a "State of the Redskins"
report from Assistant Coach Greg Williams, live band and plenty of
delicious Virginia Beach cuisine and spirits, this event gave fans a
chance to mingle with the players, coaches and cheerleaders in a
high class setting.
• Golf Tournament – Held at one of Virginia Beach's premier golf
courses, Virginia Beach National, the Beach Blitz Golf Tournament was a
huge success and sold out in record time.
• 4th and Life – The 4th & Life program is a curriculum-based program
for high school athletes focusing on what it takes to be successful on the
field, in the classroom, and in the workplace. The curriculum illustrates
important life lessons by using examples from Redskins players,
coaches, and alumni. More than 500 football players from Virginia Beach
High Schools were able to meet their heroes learn from their
experiences.
• The Beach Blitz Tailgate Party was an outdoor festival located on the
Virginia Beach Oceanfront. The event featured live music, cheerleader
performances, player appearances, fan contests, fireworks and much
more. It was an excellent opportunity to tie in the beautiful, unique natural
surrounding of the Oceanfront with the fan frenzy of the football festival
weekend.
Now in its 8th year, the Rock 'n Roll ½ Marathon Virginia Beach is a marquee running event that takes place on Labor Day Weekend. With a race field of 22,000 runners and a pictureque finish along the Virginia Beach Boardwalk and Oceanfront, the Rock 'n' Roll ½ Marathon is a cornerstone of the Virginia Beach Sports Marketing event calendar. The course is flat and fast making it popular among athletes from around the country. A major, post-race, headline concert on the beach and a live band at each mile on the course keeps the pace rockin' all the way to the finish line. Past headline performers include: Counting Crows, Live, Three Doors Down, Journey, Sugar Ray and Collective Soul.
People
• 20,000 Official Entrants
• 60,000 Spectators
• 2,000 Volunteers
• 70 Million Potential Household
viewers worldwide (Fox Sports Net)
Course
• 28 Course Clocks
• 17 Mile & Km markers
• 9 Medical Stations
Administration
• 750,000 Race Applications sent out
• 1000 VIP packets
• 1,500 Posters
Entertainment
• 750 High School Cheerleaders
• 1,500 Pom Poms
• 20 Bands
• 115 Musicians
Equipment
• 20,000 Pairs of Shoes and Socks
• 20,000 Runners T-shirts
• 20,000 Finisher's Medals
• 200 Sponsor banners along the course
Medical
• 4,352 Bags of Ice
• 2,500 Band-Aids
• 1,675 Boxes of Gauze
• 75 1lb Jars of Vaseline
The City of Virginia Beach and USA Field Hockey have a long-standing relationship of providing top quality events for athletes from around the world. From international events at the US Field Hockey National Training Center, located in Virginia Beach, to thousands of young players attending the National Indoor Tournaments in the Virginia Beach Convention Center, more than 5,000 US Field Hockey athletes call Virginia Beach home each year. For a complete listing of US Field Hockey events and more information on how to participate, log onto www.usfieldhockey.com
We have had: England, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Jamaica, Germany, Japan, Argentina, Spain, South Africa, with the women and the men have played Trinidad & Tobago.
Fun Fact about watering the field of the Training Center:
• There are six guns on each field, each of which has a PSI of
about 112.
• The combination of running the six at the same time on one
field produces 1,080 gallons of water per minute.
• We are the only city owned and operated two astro turf field
hockey facility.
Fun Facts about the National Indoor Tournament:
• Over 80,000 sq. ft. of sport court was layed down for the
event. (that's almost 3 full tractor trailers)
• Over 2400 ft. of tape was used to mark the courts
• It took 1020 2"x4"x8' and 128 4"x4"x8' boards to line the
courts' sidelines
The City of Virginia Beach hosted the National High School Coaches Association (NHSCA) for the first time with the National Wrestling Championships at the Virginia Beach Convention Center in May of 2007. More than 1,500 wrestlers from across the nation hit the mats at the Convention Center for the first day of the NHSCA National High School Wrestling Championships. The event will return for the next two (2) years.
NASCA was founded in 1989 and it's national office is located in Easton Pennsylvania. The NHSCA is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing leadership and support to high school coaches and their programs. Sports that NHSCA produce include Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Field Hockey, Football, Golf, Lacrosse, Soccer, Softball, Swimming Tennis, Volleyball and Wrestling.
http://www.nhsca.com/
The first sand soccer event in Virginia Beach occurred in May 1994 when 26 youth and adult teams braved a blustery noreaster to do battle on six fields in the "Beach Soccer Kickout". The event, co-sponsored by Beach FC and the Virginia Beach Rotary Club, proved very successful and the good news about sand soccer in Virginia Beach began quickly spreading throughout the soccer community.
As Pro Beach Soccer expanded around the world, so did the North American Sand Soccer Championships, with over 750 teams competing on 50 fields in 2006. Included in the mix were nearly twenty states and a full range of festival amusements. A direct player/coach/fan population of 25,000 was associated with NASSC 2006.
http://www.sandsoccer.com/
Fun Facts about the North American Sand Soccer Championships:
• The 2007 NASSC hosted over 8,500 players from 19 states and
several countries.
• The total number of NASSC players, coaches, families and
fans exceeded 27,000.
• NASSC is the annual major charity event conducted for the
development of the Hampton Roads Soccer Complex in Virginia
Beach, one of the nation's premier soccer facilities, hosting
400,000 visitors yearly.
• NASSC has been recognized by CosmoGirl magazine as one of
the top 100 free summer attractions in the USA
• NASSC has been consistently selected as one of the "Top 20"
summer events by the Southeast Tourism Society (STS)
USA Track & Field (USATF) is the National Governing Body for track and field, long-distance running and race walking in the United States.
USATF encompasses the world's oldest organized sports, the most-watched events of Olympic broadcasts, the #1 high school and junior high school participatory sport and more than 30 million adult runners in the United States.
http://www.usatf.org/
