Local parks hosted the first of at least three national flag football championships.
Aside from a little Friday morning rain, conditions for last weekend’s United States Flag and Touch Football League championships couldn’t have been better.
The USFTL officially moved its national championship tournament, the largest in the United States, from Kissimmee to the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World this year. The 45th edition of the event brought hundreds of teams and thousands of people into town, and spirits — even in losing — were high.
“Everything went really well with the tournament,” Mario Durastante, USFTL marketing head, says. “I’ve heard nothing but positive things from people. The Tampa Bay Sports Commission and Plant City Recreation and Parks were very helpful.”
Over 400 teams of various sizes (the USFTL sanctions competition between teams of four to nine people) packed the fields at the Otis M. Andrews Sports Complex and neighboring Ellis-Methvin Park over the weekend, and the fan support helped put the parking lots at full capacity. Anyone who slogged through the mudslide in the Ellis-Methvin parking lot or found a space at Otis Andrews was treated to high-quality action.
Spectator attendance figures have not been released, but the USFTL had been expecting to draw around 3,000 spectators for the event.
The official number of teams, released Jan. 8, was 413 — a 50-team increase from the 2014 totals. Around 15,000 men, women and youths from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands played their hearts out.
These figures should have also impacted local businesses, something that Plant City Recreation and Parks Director Jack Holland was excited about from the beginning.
“A tournament of this magnitude will bring thousands of dollars of economic development to our city through area hotels, restaurants, grocers, pharmacies, convenience stores and other businesses that will see an increase in foot traffic during the tournament,” Holland said in a release.
It was also a chance for the USFTL to introduce a national champion in its newest division: 5-on-5 Non-Contact A-Flag.
Plant City and the Tampa Bay Sports Commission have a three-year contract to keep the tournament at the Otis Andrews and Ellis-Methvin parks. Both sides have expressed interest in extending the deal beyond 2018, as long as everything goes as planned.
“We were very pleased with the overall outcome of the event,” Holland says. “Overall, it seemed to handle itself quite well. No major issues with injuries or attitudes.”
The only part of the weekend that was disliked, according to the USFTL’s player and fan interactions, was the parking scenario. Although construction delays did affect parking in the upper fields, this month’s El Nino weather turned fields and pathways that are normally bone-dry in January into thick, wet mud. Holland assured fans that it would not happen again in 2017.
“Normally, January is a dry month in Florida,” he said. “Parking will be in tip-top shape prior to next year’s event.”
Should the weather not surprise anyone next year, the tournament appears primed to be successful.
“We’re expecting 500-plus teams next year,” Durastante says.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
