The Rockford Park District, Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau and the city of Rockford announced yesterday that a series of youth basketball tournaments will kick off the opening of Sportscore Downtown in Rockford next summer, and they are expected to bring $1 million in visitor's spending along with it.

The new Sportscore facility will open in May in the former Ingersoll Machine Tools building near the Chestnut Street Bridge, and the Rockford Hoops Youth Basketball Tournament will happen at the complex for the next three years. According to the Rockford Register Star;

In the first year, Rockford Hoops will occupy the sports complex for 21 weekends, and generate $1.4 in tourism spending, according to John Groh, visitors bureau president and CEO.

On average, a Rockford Hoops two-day weekend tournament will include 100 teams, which translates to 3,000 players, siblings and coaches coming to the downtown area.

Tournament organizers also said that they had considered several other cities, but Rockford was "the first one that's done it right" by building the complex in the downtown area.

 

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