NAIA softball tournament at South Commons Complex canceled due to coronavirus
The NAIA Softball Championship won’t be coming to Columbus this year.
The NAIA announced Monday that it is canceling the spring 2020 sports season, effective immediately. The softball championship was scheduled for May.
The announcement comes following the CDC’s new guidelines to limit in-person events that consist of 50-plus people for the next eight weeks.
The agreement for Columbus to host the championship was for 2020 only. However, the NAIA opened a bid for 2021-22 with submissions due Nov. 1, 2019. Columbus submitted a bid to host the tournament.
“All possible scenarios that would have supported a spring sports season were seriously considered by multiple NAIA governance groups,” NAIA President and CEO Jim Carr said. “However, the growing state of emergency due to COVID-19, as well as the Center for Disease Control’s recommendation yesterday to limit gatherings to fewer than 50 people for eight weeks, meant we could not in good conscience move forward with the spring sports season and championships.”
Columbus also hosted the championship in 2013 and 2014.
Economic impact
Softball played at the complex brings in new money to Columbus through out-of-town visitors.
The complex drew 10,806 visitors in fiscal year 2019, which included the USA Softball International Cup, according to Sherman. Along with the Cup, the complex also hosted during that week the four-team Futures Cup for youth players. Combined, those tournaments brought an estimated $1.1 million to the local economy, VisitColumbusGA president and CEO Peter Bowden told the L-E in August.
Columbus also received invaluable media exposure, including telecasts on ESPN and ESPN2.
Each event the complex hosts is different, as some organizations cover certain expenses that others may not, but the economic impact of the events remains the same.
The events hosted by South Commons alone traditionally bring in around $4.8 million, Merri Sherman, executive director of the Columbus Sports Council, told the Ledger-Enquirer in January.
“That’s new money into our economy that’s circulated,” Sherman said. “$4.8 million on the softball events is pretty big. That’s the hotel stays, the restaurants. And it really trickles down.”
According to information in the Sports Council archives, since 1995, the economic impact of the softball on Columbus has been $147.75 million.
More events in jeopardy
The NAIA Softball Championship is not the only event at South Commons jeopardized by the CDC’s new guidelines.
The 2020 NCSA World Series is scheduled to be held at the complex May 14-17 and is still scheduled to take place, according to a statement by CollClubSports.
USA Softball is scheduled play an exhibition doubleheader at 5 p.m. April 3 at the complex during its 2020 “Stand Beside Her” tour.
