Butler County Tourism honored with 2024 sports tourism award
This year, the Butler County Tourism & Convention Bureau earned official honors from Sports Destination Management magazine for its part in organizing the “Battle in the Burgh” softball tournament, held in July at Cranberry Township Community Park.
Pittsburgh Power Softball, a nonprofit girls’ fast-pitch softball organization, has held the tournament annually since the 1990s, and Cranberry Township has hosted each edition. The 2024 tournament featured 162 teams from multiple states in seven age brackets competing for championships.
“We are so proud to support the Pittsburgh Power organization and are grateful for what they bring to our community each year,” said Amy Pack, president of the Butler County Tourism & Convention Bureau.
According to Sports Destination Management, the 2024 tournament created an estimated economic impact of $580,000 for the surrounding area. The various teams that came to Cranberry Township are estimated to have spent 1,025 “room nights” at area hotels.
“Economic impacts are drawn from estimated expenses incurred in a destination when an event attendee stays at a destination,” Pack said. “We calculate estimated food and beverage purchases from restaurants, retail spending, transportation costs and entertainment purchased. That is added to the hotel room rates that are incurred.”
Butler County’s tourism bureau has begun marketing the county as a sports destination, having recently launched a spinoff website touting the county’s many sports venues, such as the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry Township and Pullman Park in Butler.
“We have several sporting events coming in the future, and many return year after year,” Pack said. “We are host to a variety of sporting events such as hockey, baseball, softball, disc golf, running, cycling, soccer, lacrosse and more.”
During the summer, Butler County hosted the long-awaited Can-Am Police-Fire Games, a multisport event featuring first responder athletes from around the world. Butler County also hosted the United States Hockey League’s annual Fall Classic, held at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in September.
In 2025, although it will not host the tournament itself, Butler County is expected to play a part in hosting guests and hospitality for the 2025 U.S. Open golf tournament, to be held in June at Oakmont Country Club in Allegheny County.
“Butler County has always hosted attendees, vendors and volunteers in our hotels for the U.S. Open in Oakmont when it returns,” Pack said. “We mostly see these visitors utilizing our hotels and restaurants, but some will visit our golf courses too while they are here. We have such great access to Oakmont Country Club from all our southern Butler County areas, but we will see the impact of these visitors throughout Butler and even up to Slippery Rock.”
