SportsQuest and Richmond Strikers Announce Soccer Partnership

courtesy of SportsQuest

For over 30 years the Richmond Strikers have been building a soccer tournament series that today brings about 50,000 people and over $10 million dollars of economic impact and 15,000 hotel room reservations to the Greater Richmond area every year. Their nationally ranked Jefferson Cup™ soccer tournament is already widely recognized by youth soccer clubs, college coaches, and Nike Soccer as one of the penultimate tournaments for high performance soccer teams.

The agreement announced on Wednesday, Sept. 8, provides for an exclusive 10‐year tournament partnership between SportsQuest and Strikers, who now collectively own and operate the largest platform of soccer fields in the world as well as an operational team perfectly positioned to create similar nationally recognized tournaments for mid‐level youth travel teams, recreational youth teams, and adult teams.

“It was a natural fit and a genuine strategic opportunity to energize our already nationally recognized youth tournament series,” stated Scott Turner, Striker’s Executive Director.

“SportsQuest’s expertise in family entertainment, sport development capabilities, and outstanding campus will enhance the services that we offer to families who travel to our soccer tournaments and provide us with enough synthetic turf fields to avoid having to cancel a tournament due to inclement weather. Our partnership will also dramatically increase club revenues used to fund our not‐for‐profit mission to provide high quality soccer programming to youth of all ages and abilities,” he said.

Steve Burton, SportsQuest CEO agreed. “We were tremendously excited when Scott approached us with the proposal to partner with the Strikers on soccer tournaments,” remarked Burton, “The Striker partnership provides our business model immediate credibility and is the first of many similar partnership announcements SportsQuest will be making over the next few months.”

Turner and Burton reported that the leadership and governing Boards of both the Strikers and SportsQuest voted unanimously to approve the tournament partnership.

Dan Gecker, Chairman of Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, stated, "We are delighted with the partnership between SportsQuest and Strikers to bring tournaments to the SportsQuest venue; it is consistent with our desire to promote sports tourism in Chesterfield County.”
Gecker added, “We expect that this is the first of many announcements of top‐quality events coming to the SportsQuest site."

The agreement allows the Strikers and SportsQuest to combine their efforts to develop a platform of excellent soccer programming and family entertainment over a proposed annual series of five soccer tournaments that will ultimately bring over 100,000 people to the greater Richmond area during eight weekends each year.

Turner and Burton both emphasized that the existing agreement is focused singularly on tournaments and does not affect the Strikers current structure or programming, nor does it preclude SportsQuest from partnering with other local youth soccer clubs for league play and sport development programs. “We look forward to continued discussions with the Chesterfield youth soccer clubs,” stated Tim O’Sullivan, Executive Director of SportsQuest Soccer, “we are dedicated to delivering quality soccer at all levels."

About SportsQuest.
SportsQuest is a 250 acre sports and family entertainment campus being developed in Chesterfield County, VA. The company is dedicated to providing quality facilities and sports programming for youth and adults in 30 sports. SportsQuest is devoted to providing a sports and entertainment platform for active families to play or watch recreational, Olympic and Professional sports. To learn about SportsQuest visit: SportsQuest.biz, or call the SportsQuest Member Center at 804‐595‐theQ(8437). To learn more about SportsQuest upcoming family events please contact Sheri Crowell: scrowell@SportsQuest.biz.

About Richmond Strikers With approximately 4,000 members and 20+ high quality soccer fields the Richmond Strikers are one of the largest not‐for‐profit soccer clubs in the US. The club is devoted to providing an opportunity for youth (ages 4‐18) and adults the ability to experience the game of soccer at every level. The Striker’s commitment to providing quality instruction and programming as well as first class facilities is why they are one of only 50 clubs in the US to be designated “Premier Status” by Nike Soccer. The Strikers already host several youth soccer tournaments each year, including the prestigious Jefferson Cup which is one the top tournaments in the country. To learn more about the Richmond Strikers Soccer club visit: RichmondStrikers.com or contact Scott Turner by email: scott@richmondstrikers.com.