From Zero to Sports Commission: The Skagit Valley Playbook

"You don't start a sports commission and expect major tournaments to show up right away. You may have a conversation today that doesn't turn into an event for a year...but keep showing up and keep building those relationships".

Cody Hurd

Sports Development Manager

Q1: Launching your sports commission back in 2025, what made the tourism bureau decide to invest in sports tourism and what did that early buildout look like for you personally?

I joined back in 2025 and was part-time when I started being told it might turn into something more. Honestly, I knew little about what sports tourism was at all. But now, a year and nine months in, I’ve learned a lot about the sports tourism industry.

Sports tourism is a real opportunity to grow year-round visitation in Skagit Valley, especially during our shoulder seasons. Our summers are extremely busy, so we're really trying to figure out how to get more events here the rest of the year. We have great outdoor facilities, a strong hotel base, and we're located right between Seattle and Vancouver, so it's a perfect spot for people to get out of the city and come explore.

Early on, it was really about building our foundation: getting a list of facilities, figuring out who owns them and what kinds of events they host, developing relationships with tournament directors, and creating a calendar of events. We also brought in a consultancy group, Huddle Up Group, to help through a SWT grant and to help create a strategic plan to do a feasibility study.

For me personally, a lot of it has been about bringing the right people to the table and helping everyone see sports tourism as an economic development opportunity for the entire county. Just letting people know we're here and that this is a huge benefit.

Q2: What are the biggest challenges in growing a sports commission from scratch, and what have you done to address them?

Our biggest challenge is indoor capacity. We can compete for some great sporting events, but we're limited because we don't have an indoor sports facility. That actually led us to do the feasibility study and start exploring a regional indoor sports complex for Skagit County.

Beyond that, it just takes patience. You don't start a commission and expect major tournaments to show up immediately every month. It's about building relationships, responding to RFPs, staying in front of the right people and local groups, people from other states, and even other countries. It's all about connections.

We're also learning that bid incentives matter. We have many of the facilities, the hotels, the community support, but we need dedicated funding for bids like larger cities have. That's an area where we're making significant progress. Hopefully by January 2027 we'll have some sort of dedicated bid fund in place.

We're working with our cities around lodging tax, making the case that there's a big opportunity here. The goal is to get additional funding that helps us recruit sporting events to get them here, and after a couple years, they may not even need a bid fee anymore. They'll just know this is a great spot. There's a lot of untapped potential to explore in Skagit Valley.

Q3: When Playeasy came into the picture, where did you get started with the platform?

Initially, Playeasy was just another way for us to get Skagit Valley in front of tournament directors and showcase our facilities and create a county wide calendar of sporting events so our community was prepared and we could identify needed dates. When you're a new sports commission, visibility and relationship building are incredibly important... I can't stress that enough.

We started getting local businesses on the platform with promotions and began using it as a sporting event calendar. From there, we expanded. We tell people: if you want to see what's happening this weekend, check out our Playeasy page, it has almost every event going on in Skagit Valley. It's really been a game changer for us as an organization.

And it's free for local businesses to join. Playeasy has essentially become our sports website. It's a huge value add for our businesses to help them understand and connect with all the sporting events here.

Jake's Take

When Cody Hurd started at the Skagit Tourism Bureau in 2025, he was jumping right into a 3-year-old organization that was just launching their sports commission.

Sounds daunting, and it definitely is. Building an organization from scratch is not easy, but I’ve been impressed at the tremendous progress their organization and Cody individually have both made in such a small amount of time. And with no playbook to inherit and no sports tourism relationships already in place.

Cody will tell you, it’s a relationship driven industry and these things take time to develop.

Their approach at growing the sports commission started from the community up. Figuring out what their best facility assets were and building relationships with the owners and contacts in the community and then determining what events they were already hosting. Plus a lot of other stuff behind the scenes we probably don’t realize was going on to build the marketing assets, etc.

Playeasy was added to their toolbox too, but how they've used it has evolved over time. It started as a way to get Skagit Valley in front of tournament directors and showcase their facilities digitally. Then they got their local businesses and hotels involved. Then added promotions. Now if you want to know what's happening in Skagit Valley on any given weekend, you can check their Playeasy page which is full of upcoming events.

Using a brand-new system or tool can be overwhelming for a lot of organizations, but Cody and his team have really done a good job at taking Playeasy step by step which is why he was the perfect candidate for this Thought Leader Series.

In just over a year and some change since launching, The Skagit Valley Sports Commission has received their 501(c)(3) status, which opens up grant funding and new partnership opportunities. Plus, a dedicated bid fund is in the works along with a feasibility study for a regional indoor sports complex underway.

Cody might have been new to the industry going into this... but two years in, the results are starting to speak for themselves. Cool to see the progress, give it a read!

Q4: What's been the feedback from local businesses on the promotions?

Really positive. We have about 20 promotions running in just a short few months, and the data has been great. One of our businesses has already had 120 people use their promotion through Playeasy, which has been incredible to see.

A lot of other businesses are seeing traction and asking what else they can do. We've been making flyers with a QR code that links straight to their Playeasy promotions. It's a way to reach people during events who might not find it on their own. Some people aren't going to search the internet for this stuff, but they'll scan a QR code on a flyer at the event and see all the promotions right there. We also ask tournament directors to share these promotions with teams and families, helping visitors discover places to stay, eat, and explore while they're here.

Q5: How have the hotels responded as you've grown sports tourism in the valley? And how are you using Playeasy to connect event attendees to hotels and local businesses?

Really positive. The hotels have been bought in from the start and they knew sports tourism was going to be big in Skagit Valley. They definitely want more events, especially in the off-season. That's a big part of why we did the feasibility study for an indoor sports complex, and we're currently working through the next steps on making that a reality.

As our sports tourism efforts have grown, our conversations with hotels have become more strategic. We're discussing tournament dates, room blocks, booking links, shoulder-season opportunities, and what we can do together to win events. For most events, hotels provide a general booking link that we include on each event page. For larger tournaments, including our soccer events, we can also get a link to the hotel discounts and local business deals on the tournament's own website. We want our hotels to see the Sports Commission as an extension of their sales efforts.

The data has been really encouraging. The hotels are buying in, the local businesses are starting to buy in. For me it's really about spreading the message that we are here to help you. It's a win all around if we can get people here, have a great experience, and make them want to come back, whether that's to another sporting event or just to explore.

Q6: What has worked better than you expected, and what are you still working through?

The willingness of our community partners to collaborate has probably exceeded my expectations. The cities, the hotels, the schools, and our local chambers have all bought into what we're trying to build, which makes my job a lot easier.

What we're still working through is being more competitive for larger events — bid fees, facilities, transportation. Every RFP is a little different, so we're learning what levers we can pull like room blocks, sponsorships, signage, different kinds of incentives. It's an ongoing process.

Q7: What's next for the sports commission over the next year or two?

The next couple years are really about converting the foundation we've built into results. We want to bring in more regional and national tournaments, with a particular focus on events that generate overnight stays and business during our shoulder seasons.

We're also moving forward with planning for a potential indoor sports facility in partnership with the City of Burlington, Burlington-Edison School District, and other regional partners. We've hired Huddle Up Group to help guide that process.

And a big milestone is that we just received our 501(c)(3) status for the Skagit Valley Sports Commission, which opens up additional grant opportunities, donations, and partnerships as we look at future events. That's been a really big plus for us.

Q8: For a destination that's just getting started in sports tourism or on Playeasy, what advice would you give?

Don't think of Playeasy as just an internet marketing platform. Think about the entire visitor journey and really put yourself in the visitor's shoes. What do you want to see? Start with the facilities and events, then get your hotels and local businesses involved. Give tournament directors something useful they can put right on their own website. Make it easy for the visitor, for the organizer, and for their families and coaches.

And be patient. You're not going to land a new event overnight. This is very relationship-driven. You may have a conversation today that doesn't turn into anything for a year, but keep showing up. Keep building those relationships.

For us, the goal has always been to use sports tourism to generate overnight stays for our local businesses and create a positive economic impact throughout Skagit Valley as a whole.