The Woodlands becomes a hub for youth sports
Township continues to tap into the $91.8B national tourism industry
While many are sleeping off a half pound of Thanksgiving turkey, thousands of elite soccer players wearing the logos of major league teams — Houston Dynamo, Austin FC, Liga MX’s CF Monterrey — take over The Woodlands’ sports complexes each November.
It’s not a professional tournament: the Copa Rayados Internacional, which brings in boys’ academy teams from North America’s top professional clubs, including MLS and Liga MX, is one of the most sought-after youth soccer tournaments in the country.
With no professional or college teams in Montgomery County, The Woodlands has embraced hosting prestigious youth sporting tournaments in the state as it continues to tap into the $91.8-billion national youth sports tourism industry.
“They’re staying in our hotels, they’re eating at our restaurants,” The Woodlands Township COO Chris Nunes said. “What that does is it generates additional sales and hotel taxes that go back into The Woodlands Township which helps reduce the township’s reliance on property tax, so there’s revenue being generated into the system that is not being paid by the residents.”
The township has three major sporting complexes: Bear Branch, Gosling and the largest, Alden Bridge Sports Park, which spans across 41.92 acres. By contrast, Round Rock’s Old Settler’s Park boasts 645 acres.
In 2021, The Woodlands’ Parks and Recreation department looked at ways to potentially lure more sporting events and last month the township approved the first phase of a
“They’re staying in our hotels, they’re eating at our restaurants, that generates additional sales into The Woodlands.” Chris Nunes, COO of The Woodlands Township
to renovate Alden Bridge by adding two new turf fields this year. Other plans include adding another artificial turf field at Gosling and converting another field to turf at Wentwoods Park.
Nunes said the parks department is also considering a new sports complex altogether. Dubbed the “South Gosling” sports park, the project has not yet been approved by the township.While the township has significantly fewer resources than the “Sports Capital of Texas” in Round Rock, the township has carved out a niche in the sports tourism industry by embracing more “boutique” youth sporting events for lacrosse, rugby and soccer and expanding its all-weather artificial turf fields, Nunes said.
“At least three tournaments have moved here specifically because we have artificial fields,” Nunes said.
Hosted by CF Monterey, the Copa Rayados Internacional spent its first three years in San Antonio. When the tournament was rained out one year, teams from as far as Ecuador were forced to fly back home empty-handed.
Because of a strong fan presence — the Houston metro has the largest number of CF Monterey fans outside of its home city — and the area’s turf fields, Premier Soccer Services decided to shift its tournament to The Woodlands the following year, tournament director Scott Spencer said.
“To have an event engaged in the metro area and then to have it in The Woodlands, which is a really desirable area to be in, was kind of perfect,” Spencer said. “It’s been a great partnership for seven years.”
The partnership has been mutually beneficial: in 2022, the tournament hosted 305 teams and saw an attendance of 73,000 across five days. Spencer said teams booked an estimated 7,600 hotel room nights.
“I think the economic impact of these large events are a great asset for the township,” Spencer said. “Shopping is a huge component for a lot of these teams traveling from a long way (away,) especially since it’s Thanksgiving week and Black Friday…I think that’s really impactful, but the event in general is pretty cool in that it brings such a diversity of different groups to the (township).”
A month after Copa Rayados, The Woodlands’ sports complexes are filled with 73 lacrosse teams for the annual Best of Texas tournament. Texas is the second-biggest market for the Philadelphia-based tournament organizers, Victory Event Series; and as one of the largest youth lacrosse tournaments in the state, Best of Texas brings in around 4,500 attendees a year, executive director Bob Dignazio said.
The Woodlands has also produced its own elite youth leagues. The homegrown Woodlands Youth Rugby Club is the largest in Texas and has some of the most skilled players in the country: the boys’ Division 1 team is currently No. 2 in the nation, president Charlie Hopkins sad.
Teams regularly come in from neighboring states and countries to take on one of the league’s eight teams, and each April, hundreds of youth rugby’s top athletes compete in Texas’ largest youth rugby tournament, the Come and Take It championship.
While it’s gaining popularity, rugby doesn’t have as much traction in the United States as it does in other countries. Hopplan kins, who learned about the sport herself because of a family visiting from New Zealand, said the Woodlands is an ideal place for rugby because of its large population of international residents, its emphasis on youth sports and its high-quality facilities.
“We’ve got the best fields of anywhere we’ve experienced, with the exception of maybe Nationals (in Kansas City,)” Hopkins said. “I really think no other place, especially in the Houston area or even in Texas, even compares to our facilities.”
The turf fields are now so desired that it’s become more difficult to book a slot, Dynamo Dash technical director Don Gemmell said.
The Woodlands-headquartered Dynamo Dash serve as the youth academies for Houston's major league soccer teams and boast 8,700 players across four locations in the metro. Overnight and partial day visitors to the nine Woodlands Dynamo Dash events each year have produced over $55 million in economic impact since 2015, with almost $13 million in direct spending in 2020-21 alone, according to a 2021 economic impact analysis.
When Gemmell moved down from Michigan in 2005, there were no turf fields, and the organization had just a few hundred participants. Gemmell said the Dash and the Woodlands’ sports tourism grew hand in hand as the township continued to create new facilities and partnerships.
“The township was very smart and had the foresight to put in the turf fields,” Gemmell said. “Now, the problem is that everybody wants to be on them.”