FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jeff Gayduk, Publisher | Premier Travel Media | 630.794.0696 | advertising@ptmgroups.com
Sports Planning Guide Answers the Facility Arms Race With “First Look”
New program extends SPG’s Breaking Ground intelligence network, giving venues still under construction a way to reach event planners who book two years out
The race to build sports-specific facilities has become one of the defining stories in American destination development and Sports Planning Guide (SPG) has launched a program built for the moment before the ribbon is cut.
First Look is a pre-opening marketing program for facilities still under construction. It is designed to put venues in front of the tournament directors, national governing bodies and event organizers who fill their calendars 12 to 24 months in advance, which is the exact window when most new facilities are building their marketing operations, developing their websites and establishing online visibility.
The program builds directly on Breaking Ground, SPG’s ongoing editorial coverage of new facility development, through which the publication currently tracks more than 150 facilities in the national construction pipeline.
“There is a staggering amount of concrete and turf going into the ground right now, and most of these facilities are going to open into a market that has never heard of them,” said Jeff Gayduk, publisher of Sports Planning Guide. “It has turned into an arms race. Every destination wants the tournament, and the venue is the price of entry. What we hear from planners is that they cannot keep up with what is coming online, let alone what is still a hole in the ground.”
The timing gap is the problem First Look was built to close. Because rights holders commit to sites a year or two in advance, a facility that waits until opening day to begin marketing has already missed a full booking cycle, all while carrying debt service on a building with an empty calendar.
The scale of the buildout is substantial. More than $9 billion has been invested in youth- and amateur-sport-specific venues nationwide since 2017, according to The Sports Facilities Companies, which alone has more than 20 openings, groundbreakings and reopenings tied to 2026.
First Look is structured in three tiers tied to the construction timeline—awareness, pre-launch and grand opening—with layered exposure across SPG’s editorial, digital and planner-facing channels that scales as a project moves from groundbreaking to opening day.
Both facilities and destination marketing organizations are candidates for the program, and the two can participate jointly. The facility gains planner visibility before it opens; the CVB strengthens its sports tourism pitch with a venue it can point to while it is still being built.
“A new complex is the single strongest thing a destination can put in front of a rights holder, and most CVBs are already trying to tell that story,” Gayduk said. “This gives them a channel, a partner and a reason to start telling it two years earlier than they otherwise would.”
Facilities and destination organizations can learn more at SportsPlanningGuide.com or by contacting an SPG representative at 630.794.0696.
About Sports Planning Guide
Published since 2009 by Premier Travel Media, Sports Planning Guide is the leading trade resource for sports event planners, reaching more tournament directors, national governing bodies and event organizers nationwide than any other media brand with destination, facility and event coverage. Its Breaking Ground editorial franchise tracks new sports facility development across the country.