GREENSBORO, N.C. — Founded in 1993, the Greensboro Sports Foundation was originally a group of organizations working to recruit and host sports events.
According to their website, the GSF mission is, in part, “….to foster national, amateur and other sports competition in the Greensboro, Guilford County and central North Carolina areas to maximize the positive impact on the area’s economy, national image, and community pride by organizing and operating Atlantic Coast Conference and NCAA regular-season games and post-season events.”
Newly appointed president Richard Beard said, "The Greensboro Sports Foundation is a North Carolina non-profit corporation which serves as the Local Organizing Committee for sports events contested at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex, which proudly includes the Greensboro Aquatic Center, and throughout Greensboro. With thousands of visitors attending Greensboro sports events each year, the GSF creates economic development through sports tourism, one of the travel industry’s fastest-growing segments. As the Local Organizing Committee, the GSF's primary responsibility for the amateur sports events it hosts is to provide volunteers."
Beard says there are more than 25 thousand athletes coming to the area just in the last 2 weeks of July for swimming events and track and field events and that's not including The Wyndham Championship.
"Sports events generate economic development through sports tourism. The many amateur sports events Greensboro hosts each year bring thousands of tourists to Greensboro," continued Beard, "These visitors fill our hotels and eat in our restaurants generating tremendous tax revenue."
In addition to economic development, the foundation works to enhance Greensboro’s national reputation as ‘Tournament Town’ and develop strategic partners to better position Greensboro to handle major sporting events.