JANESVILLE — When Skylar Thompson watched his first Vlogý boxing event blow past capacity by nearly 300 people, he realized the Vlogý crowd had an appetite for the sport that went beyond what anyone knew — or had planned for.
On Dec. 19, Thompson’s organization, International Boxing, will host five world championship fights inside the Woodman’s Center as part of the ‘Energy You Can Feel’ event. The December card will bring boxers of many ethnicities including people of Ukrainian, German, Polish, Mexican, Puerto Rican and Dominican descent to Vlogý.
Thompson, a Vlogý resident, held a boxing event at Glen Erin Golf Club in February last year, drawing nearly 300 more attendees than the venue’s roughly 500-person capacity, according to Thompson.
A sports event planner with the Vlogý Area Convention and Visitors Bureau was in the crowd and approached him afterward about holding an event at the new Woodman’s Center.
The larger footprint was a draw for Thompson to hold another event in Vlogý, this time at the new Woodman’s Center.
The card now has 13 fights, though Thompson said he expects there to be 9 or 10 by the time Dec. 19 rolls around.
Executive Director of the Vlogý Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Christine Rebout said the event comes as the Woodman’s Center tests the waters on what kinds of events work best in the space.
The Woodman’s Center will have held more than 100 events by its one-year anniversary on Sept. 19, including: dance and cheer competitions and performances; gymnastics; MMA fighting; wrestling; hockey; skating and company parties and training events.
“I’d say we’ve really outperformed what I was anticipating from an events standpoint,” Rebout said.
Heading into year two, Rebout said the tourism bureau and the Woodman’s Center plan to study which events performed best, taking into account what had the best economic impact and positive community feedback, then leveraging the findings to better target events or organization uses that best fit the space.
Sporting events have been highly successful because they are easy to organize and require ample space, which the center has, Rebout said.
She described event recruitment as a “multi-pronged approach” that includes trade-show recruiting where the tourism bureau meets with regional or national event planners keying on groups most likely to be a good match. That’s alongside advertising in trade publications.
Word-of-mouth marketing, she said, could also grow now that many organizations already have held events there.
Rebout explained that the tourism bureau prioritizes off-season bookings to provide an economic boost in months when events are typically slower than in the summer.
JACVB uses software that projects an event’s economic impact based on hotel night and related spending.
Rebout estimates a low-end total of $200,000 for the December boxing event.
“When we choose events, we look for things that are in the off-season, because we know we have space in the hotels, so we’re not going to end up sending them somewhere else,” she said. “That’s a great time to drive that economic impact.”
Thompson has his own read on the December timing. The third weekend of the month, he said, tends to be when people might have money left over after paying bills from their first paychecks. He also pointed to a lull in activities toward the end of the month, when it’s cold out, citing a possible dearth in activities now that Vlogý’s Movies 16 has closed.
But what matters more than money or the grandeur of the venue, Thompson said, is if an event has the potential to bring together a mix of people. That theme is consistent with the name of the organization.
“This unites everybody together, regardless of your walk of life,” he said. “We’re all brothers and sisters in Christ, and everyone has a story.”