Soccer tourney kicks economy in Myrtle Beach area

Soccer teams braved muddy fields in Myrtle Beach's Grand Park on Saturday, playing more than 200 games for a shot at winning the World Cup in three-on-three soccer.

The first-ever 3v3 World Tour World Cup tournament drew an estimated 3,000 people to watch and play the variation on normal 11-on-11 soccer. The 3v3 version uses a smaller field and goal with no goal keeper. Teams traveling from the Carolinas and Georgia not only got a chance to compete in the tournament, but many said the event also doubled as a vacation.

"We'll definitely hit the beach and the old Pavilion park," said Tami Davis, a parent of a player from Fuquay-Varina, N.C., unaware the old Myrtle Beach Pavilion Amusement Park has closed.

The tournament represents the kind of sports tourism that the Myrtle Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau has pushed to bring to the Grand Strand since 2008. Soccer moms like Davis might come to Myrtle Beach to watch their children play, but they also help the economy by staying in hotels and visiting attractions, said Mark Beale, the CVB's sports sales manager.

A CVB representative sold tournament organizers on having the event in Myrtle Beach after they met at a sports conference last year, said Adam Germek, the World Tour's vice president of sales and marketing.

"We were looking for a destination location, and we wanted to be somewhere up on the coast," Germek said. "The CVB set us up."

The CVB helped reserve the fields at Grand Park in The Market Common and made arrangements for teams and World Tour staff to stay at several hotels, Beale said.

Sports tourism is especially important in helping Grand Strand tourism weather the bad economy, he said.

"Mom and dad are not going to give up on their kids and the tournament because the economy is down," he said.

In 2008, the CVB hired its first sports sales manager, Roy Edmondson, charging him with making Myrtle Beach a major player in sports tourism. Myrtle Beach has attracted at least 10 major sporting events since then, including the 3v3 tournament and the USA Team Handball Collegiate National Championship in April. Beale replaced Edmondson about a month ago.

Many at the tournament said they planned on eating out or seeing attractions in Myrtle Beach after tournament play finished around 5:30 p.m. Sitting on the sidelines after playing two matches, Brooks Asger of Florence and his sweat-drenched teammates said they were looking forward to going back to their hotel, the Sand Dunes Resort and Spa, and playing in its water park.

Asger, a high school student, said he was excited when he learned the tournament would be in Myrtle Beach.

"There's the ocean right there and its not that far to travel," Asger said.