Pigeon
Forge, TN – March 2016 / Newsmaker Alert / The LeConte
Center at Pigeon Forge is bringing a new sport to this Great Smoky
Mountains resort destination – beach volleyball. It is part of a series
of sports tournaments that make up the longest booking in the three-year
history of the $45 million facility.
Franklin Fieldhouse, a sports
company in Franklin, Tenn., has contracted the LeConte Event Center for
13 outdoor beach volleyball and indoor basketball tournaments that cumulatively
will attract several thousand young athletes and their families to Pigeon
Forge.
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Activity
begins May 27-30 with the AAU Memorial Day Mountain Jam, a boys’ basketball
tournament. That will be the first AAU event in the LeConte Event Center.
The series continues through
June 26 and also includes the AAU Southeastern Girls’ Championship.
“Beach volleyball is the
sixth sport for the LeConte Event Center, proving that our facility and
our city are great destinations for team sports, especially youth sports,”
said Phil Campbell, facility manager at the LeConte Event Center.
The LeConte Event Center,
which opened in 2013, previously has hosted events for basketball, volleyball,
cheer and gymnastics. A road race exactly 5 miles, 916 yards long is scheduled
during the RetroWeekend that
starts April 29.
Beach volleyball accounts
for eight of the 13 Franklin Fieldhouse events. Competition categories
include men’s and women’s doubles, junior doubles and coed teams. Sand
courts will be installed outside the north end of the 232,000-square-foot
LeConte Event Center.
“These events span almost
five weeks, and that’s the longest stretch of time that one client has
booked our facility. We are eager for Franklin Fieldhouse to bring a new
crop of visitors to Pigeon Forge,” Campbell said.
Pigeon Forge’s total sports
scenes expanded this month with the opening of the $22.5 million Ripken
Experience Pigeon Forge, a six-field youth baseball complex that will
attract tournament play nine months a year.
Pigeon Forge visitor information
is available online at MyPigeonForge.com
or by calling 800-251-9100. LeConte Event Center information is at LeConteCenter.com.
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Contact:
Tom
Adkinson, APR
for Pigeon Forge Department
of Tourism
615-341-8796 |