Playeasy Event Organization Spotlight: American FootGolf League
Get to Know American FootGolf League:
How many tourism producing events will you host in 2025? (generate 20+ hotel rooms per night)
In 2025 we have 4 major events that are part of our new Grand Slam of FootGolf. Each of these tournaments have an international player base to them. For example our first tournament of 2025 will be in Henderson, NV where we will be playing a team competition against 5 other countries over 3 days. We have teams from Japan, Chile, Mexico, Canada and Honduras who will be competing in the Pacific Trophy. Then following that event we will play the Las Vegas Open, a 2 day individual player tournament.
What is your biggest event? How many hotel room nights are generated on peak night(s)?
Our biggest tournament is typically the US Open, which will take place outside of New York City in October of 2025. Typically this tournament has around 160 players and only a handful are within driving distance to the event. How many hotel room nights are generated on peak night(s)? This is a 4 day tournament where many players will be traveling with family so we typically generalate about 300 room nights in total for this event where players will stay a minimum of 3 to 4 days.
Have you grown geographically in 2024 or project geographic growth in future years?
Being a sport that has only been in existence for about a dozen years we have done pretty well in growth, here in the US we have courses in just about every state and our players on the tour come from all over the country. A Tour player in FootGolf travels both inside and outside the USA. This year Team USA played against Team Mexico in January in Las Vegas and against Team Great Britain in Scotland in August. Since the AFGL is part of the Federation for International FootGolf we host and travel to international events. There are now 41 countries who play FootGolf as part of the FIFG. We are already looking for a location for the next edition of The Jansen Cup against Team Great Britain in 2026.
What makes a Destination stand out when selecting a host?
Well, to us ideally we would like the destination to already have a FootGolf course. Then we need the cooperation of the golf course to be available to us for 3 to 4 days for most of the day. Of course since we do have the international aspect and most of our US players will be flying into the location, easy airport access is essential. And finally since this sport is mainly self funded by the players we need a variety of rooming options as some players and clubs will want to stay in multi bedroom houses and others will want a resort style option so they can bring their families and have options of entertainment for them too. But that is not to say that if we had some support to off-set housing cost then we could look at a new location that has a golf course willing to let us take over the course for a weekend.
What are your “nice to haves” vs. your “non-negotiables”?
The cooperation of the golf course is non-negotiable. This is why it is best to be working with a course that understands the sport and what is involved in us bringing in a tournament. It is really very much like a golf tournament. Our formats and structure of play are the same. The number of players for a tournament are similar also since you can only fit so many players on a course at one time. For example when we hosted the World Cup in 2023 we had 5 courses running simultaneously because we had almost a thousand players on the courses each day.
Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, are you looking for new locations to host events? What geographic areas are you most interested in, or are you open to opportunities across the United States? Are you interested in going international (if so, where?).
That’s easy, YES, we want to add in some really good courses and locations that are new for our players to compete at. We have our favorites of course but we know there are so many other courses out there that would make great locations for our major events.
We really lack competitions in the center of the country for major events. We tend to go to the East Coast or West Coast and we would really like to do something in states in the center of the country. We only organize tournaments in the United States, there are FIFG members around the world that host events in their countries.
When can Destinations expect to see a new RFPs/Opportunities from your Organization? If you have an RFP currently listed, are you still looking for interest? When are the best times for Destinations to reach out to you if they are interested?
We have our 2025 calendar already done, so we are looking for locations in 2026. We hope to have a new RFP out before the end of the year.
Does anyone from your team attend Sports Tourism Conferences? (If yes, which ones)
We have traveled to sports conferences for several years now. This year has been a bit different as our calendar has been full during some of the major ones this year. Usually we attend TEAMS. SPORTS The Relations Conference and Connect.
Have you had any successful partnerships with Destinations in the past, and if so, could you list those?
Yes we have worked for several years with Kissimmee Sports and the past year with Lansing Sports for our National Championship. We are trying to bring in an event to Branson and are working with the CVB there as well.
Is there anything else you would like Destinations to know about your organization?
Yes, I would like to let them know that even if they can’t host a larger FootGolf event we have opportunities to get involved with us at golf courses that are hosting smaller tournaments both on our AFGL Tour and as we continue to grow the U.S. Amateur Tour. Those tournaments will turn into being part of regional or state championships as the sport grows and there will be an opportunity for them to bid on these championships where there will be many more players. We expect the amateur side of the sport to be much larger than the AFGL Tour at some point.
Check out the American FootGolf League’s profile on Playeasy here!
