Each year, Sports ETA honors organizations and individuals in the sports events and tourism industry to celebrate their accomplishments and achievements. After a deep-dive of the past awards program, a small committee of Sports ETA members have revamped the 2023 program to not only streamline the submission process, but include award categories that are relevant to all association members and the programs members want and should be recognized for.
View past Award Winners
2023 Fall Award Categories
**Awarded at the 2023 4S SUMMIT**
SUBMIT A NOMINATION
Destination Branding & Marketing Campaign of the Year
Population: Under 500,000
Population: 500,000 and above
Who is eligible to submit a nomination for this award: Destination member organizations
This award is given to a destination member with the most outstanding comprehensive marketing campaign for its organization between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023. This can include a variety of types of marketing: print ads, newsletters, email blasts, digital marketing (including websites, social media components, etc.), press releases, media coverage, or any other promotional program. The campaign should promote the sports destination, not general travel or meetings.
View criteria
SUBMIT A NOMINATION
Event Marketing Campaign of the Year
Population: Under 500,000
Population: 500,000 and above
Who is eligible to submit a nomination for this award: Destination member organizations
This award is given to a destination member with the most outstanding comprehensive marketing campaign for a single event hosted by its organization between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023. This can include a variety of types of marketing: print ads, newsletters, email blasts, digital marketing (including websites, social media components, etc.), press releases, media coverage, or any other promotional program.
View criteria
SUBMIT A NOMINATION
Timeline
**Subject to change.
August 2 – Awards Portal Opens
October 1 @ 11:59 PM PT– Awards Portal Closes
Early October – Award Committee Reviews and Selects Winners
October 25 - Award winners announced & celebrated at the 4S Summit
October 25-26 - Award winners present breakout sessions at the 4S Summit
SUBMIT A NOMINATION
2023 Spring Award Categories
**AWARDED AT THE 2023 SYMPOSIUM**
Member award activities and events must have occurred between January 1 and December 31, 2022.
Sports Commission of the Year
Population: Under 500,000
Population: 500,000 and above
Who Can Submit: Destinations
This will be awarded to the sports commission that can demonstrate its superior performance over the past year. Factors to be considered will include how the sports commission achieved its objectives of the past year (including economic impact, hotel occupancy, community engagement, corporate involvement, benefits to civic organizations). Applicants will provide examples of how activities benefited their community by promoting the area as a sports destination regionally, nationally or internationally, as well as support from community leaders, strategic partners and others.
View criteria
Sports Tourism Organization of the Year
Population: Under 500,000
Population: 500,000 and above
Who Can Submit: Destinations
This will be awarded to the sports tourism organization that can demonstrate its superior performance over the past year. Factors to be considered will include the quality of sporting events supported by the organization based on community interest, size of events in relation to community size and the positive impact events on the community. Applicants will provide specific examples of how they supported those events including (volunteer recruitment, sponsorship referrals, marketing), how they were produced and staffed, and how their region benefited. Criteria will include evidence that the organization’s activities benefited the community financially and otherwise.
View criteria
Event Partnership of the Year
Population: Under 500,000
Population: 500,000 and above
Who Can Submit: Destinations, Rights Holders, Industry Partners
This new award speaks to the work the association has done in recent years to be more open to all categories of members. Nominations may come from a destination, a rights holder, a venue partner, an industry partner or any combination from above. This award will be given to a destination, rights holder, venue and/or industry partners whose collaborative partnership on a sports event was exemplary to the benefit of both organizations, or who worked in innovative ways on an event to the benefit of each organization. Applicants will be asked to demonstrate specific examples of how they worked together to produce a noteworthy event, how they communicated leading up to, during and after the event, and innovative factors that led to a true partnership.
View criteria
Event or Program Impact of the Year
Population: Under 500,000
Population: 500,000 and above
Who Can Submit: Destinations, Rights Holders, Industry Partners
The impact of an event can go beyond economic impact. While those factors are still important and will be considered in this award, the Event or Program Impact of the Year will go to a sports event or local initiative whose impact can be defined in other key measurable ways. Applicants for this award will demonstrate how their event had an impact in their communities or for their residents/participants beyond just the financials. Some examples of how those events or initiatives succeeded would be how they benefited underserved communities, events or initiatives that helped give residents outlets to improve their fitness in a measurable way, events or initiatives that were aimed at underserved communities, promoting adaptive sports and programs for disabled residents, events or initiatives dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion, or events or initiatives that were dedicated to environmental sustainability.
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Rising Star Award
Who Can Submit: Destinations, Rights Holders, Industry Partners
Those just starting out in the sports tourism industry deserve to be recognized. This award will recognize an individual or individuals in the industry who have already made an impact in their communities, events or business. Applicants will have to have been employed in a sports tourism capacity for less than five years to be considered for this award and must show how their actions have made a substantive impact over that time.
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Superior Service Award
Who Can Submit: Industry Partners
This is an award for an industry partner individual or organization that has proven of service to the sports tourism industry in a substantive way. Applicants must show how their work or efforts have provided a benefit to destinations, sports organizations and/or the industry as a whole through their products or their support of the industry. Factors that will be considered for this award include economic benefits to the industry and how the applicants worked in collaboration with other association membership categories.
View criteria
2023 Timeline
**The timeline for the 2024 spring awards program will be released in January 2024**
February 13 – Awards Portal Opens
March 31 – Awards Portal Closes
April – Award Committee Reviews and Selects Winners
May 9 – Announce winners at Symposium in Kansas City
View past Award Winners
Please Note:
The awards submission form is a Google Form. The best way to complete this form and upload all necessary documents is to have a Google account.
If you do not have a google account, that’s ok. You can still access the form and upload documents, but you will need to associate your current email address with Google for authentication.
To do this, you'll want to select "create an account" from the Google login screen. From there, enter your name and email and select "use my current email address instead." Follow the prompts to associate your non-Google account.
Questions
If you have any questions about the nomination process or specific award categories, don't hesitate to get in touch with Sports ETA Member Services at info@SportsETA.org.
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