Hoover council to meet Thursday on international soccer convention proposal

Hoover Council President Gene Smith has called a special meeting of the council for Thursday night to consider investing more than $500,000 to bring an international soccer convention to the city next year.

But there have been some questions about whether the payout is worth the investment.

The proposal is for the city to pay $500,000 to host a two-day North American soccer convention that organizers say should bring 1,000 to 1,500 prominent figures in the soccer industry from 41 countries in North America, Central America and the Caribbean to Hoover in September 2018. The city also would have to provide 250 free hotel rooms but would get 30 percent of revenues from convention fees and sponsorships, Smith said.

The convention would be organized by a London-based soccer organization called SoccerEx, which puts on international soccer conventions across the globe and has been endorsed by the U.S. Soccer Federation and Major League Soccer.

It would be the group’s first North American convention in almost 20 years, said Bunmi Jinadu, co-chairman of the local organizing committee for the SoccerEx America Forum.

Several Hoover City Council members have touted this convention as an opportunity to market the city at an international level and promote it for sports tourism, particularly the city’s multi-field sports complex under development next to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.

But some people have raised questions about whether this particular convention is out of Hoover’s league, considering that SoccerEx typically holds such conventions in much larger cities.

Riverchase resident Arnold Singer told the council at its meeting on Monday that the idea for this kind of event in Hoover is great but questioned whether Hoover is equipped to handle something of this magnitude. Because such a convention has not been held in North America in two decades, he also is concerned if it will turn out to be the success that organizers claim it will, he said. “My 80-year-old antenna is quivering,” Singer said, saying the losses could exceed the investment.

Councilman John Greene said there are no guarantees how many convention delegates and exhibitors will attend and he, too, would feel better if other cities that have put on such conventions in other countries were similar in size to Hoover. “We can’t compete with these cities,” Greene said.

Councilman Mike Shaw said he thinks Hoover is a world-class city and that this convention is a perfect size for Hoover. “We’ve had bigger conventions than this before,” he said.

An economic impact study conducted on SoccerEx’s South African Forum held in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal ,from 2012 to 2014 found that that convention drew about 515 delegates and 19 exhibitors and had a $9 million economic impact over those three years. The convention also contributed an estimated $3.8 million to the region’s gross domestic product for those years, the study said.

Smith said just because Hoover doesn’t have an Eiffel Tower like Paris or gigantic statue of Jesus like Rio de Janeiro doesn’t mean the city can’t put on a convention like this. “It’s just unfortunate that anybody would sell this city short,” he said.

Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato asked the Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau to analyze the SoccerEx proposal.

In a letter back to Brocato dated Tuesday, bureau President and CEO John Oros Jr. said the bureau feels the “tourism impact from the SoccerEx conference would not be worth the dollars invested.” From a tourism perspective, the dollars invested to host the conference would have a greater return on investment if they were used to pay bid fees to secure new youth sports tournaments that generate a far greater economic impact in the Hoover community, Oros wrote.

However, Smith said the SoccerEx convention is less about the impact of a particular conference and more about using the convention as an economic development tool to recruit businesses to Hoover. The convention also could be a catalyst that leads to other events and economic stimuli in Hoover, Smith said.

For example, Jinadu is proposing to bring an international youth soccer tournament in conjunction with the SoccerEx convention, and some city leaders are interested in the possibility of promoting Hoover as a potential home for a professional women’s soccer club, Smith said.

Oros, in his letter to Brocato, said it is not the Convention and Visitors Bureau’s mission to determine the economic development value of the organizations or delegates attending a SoccerEx convention. He recommended the city reach out to economic development agencies in Jefferson and Shelby counties to qualify and verify the relocation potential of any of those firms.

“If you do decide to pursue the event with that purpose in mind, it is my hope that you are highly successful,” Oros wrote. “The GBCVB desires that those companies attending give Hoover strong consideration as a permanent home!”

Smith said this afternoon he thinks there are enough votes on the City Council to pass the SoccerEx proposal. However, for the city to enter a contract with SoccerEx, the mayor would need to sign it, he said.

“Everyone would want his good wishes and participation,” Smith said. “Nobody would like to move forward without his participation.”

Brocato said tonight that he still would rather not comment on the proposal until he has an opportunity to discuss it with council members individually. “I think it’s very important for us to work as a group,” he said.

Thursday’s special meeting of the Hoover City Council is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the William J. Billingsley Council Chambers at the Hoover Municipal Center at 100 Municipal Lane.

This article was updated at 6:38 p.m. to include information from an economic impact study conducted for SoccerEx's South African Forum in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal from 2012 to 2014.