CINCINNATI — Leaders from the newly formed Cincinnati Regional Sports Commission say they are getting ready to go live. The commission's mission is to secure big sporting events for the Queen City.
On Monday, Visit Cincy CEO Julie Calvert said their goal is to land the NFL Draft.
"We want the draft for 2028 and we've been working with the Bengals for several years on that, and now that we have this commission and once we get staff which will be very shortly the limits are off," said Calvert.
The Hamilton County Board of Commissioners last week passed a resolution directing $150,000 to help form the sports commission. This comes after Cincinnati City Council approved up to $250,000 to invest in the new commission.
"There's a lot of sporting events that are happening around the nation in a lot smaller places than Cincinnati with a lot worse infrastructure I would argue than Cincinnati and we're just not taking advantage of," council member Seth Walsh said.
Calvert said they're also securing private investments from the business community, but she didn't specify which businesses or how much. She also said they've secured funding from Meet NKY.
We asked Calvert how much of that money the commission had already spent.
"The investment has been minimal because it's been in the start-up mode you know getting the board together getting the new by-laws in place and things like that and there have been some marketing dollars that we've spent," said Calvert.
Per their website, Gary Lindgren with the Cincinnati Business Committee is listed as the board's chairman, Scott Robertson from RCF Group is the president, and Jeremy Vaughan from Ernst & Young is the treasurer/secretary. The executive committee also features Akiva Freeman, from Kroger, who is listed as the manager of office, manufacturing and logistics, and Brian Hodgett, from Procter & Gamble, who is the vice president of government relations. Calvert says the commission needs to hire full-time staff members.
"It's a $128 billion nationally in sports," said Calvert, talking about the business of landing big sporting events like the NFL Draft to a city.
The NFL Draft is multiple days filled with heartwarming stories, celebrations and perhaps most importantly for the city, big crowds. Green Bay estimates it generated $20 million this past weekend and $90 million statewide from hosting the draft.
Calvert said the goal of the commission is to ensure the sports market does not continue "passing Cincinnati by."
"We have the infrastructure for it but we don't have anybody thinking about it day in and day out how do we bring these top-tier events here and build a brand for Cincinnati," said Walsh. "It's a huge missed opportunity seeing that Green Bay has pulled it off after strategic investment shows that we can do it too if we start getting strategic."
