I was lucky enough to have County Commissioner Dan Foley buy me (and about 29 other people) lunch today- to discuss what we can do to build Dayton into a Sport Tourism Destination.

Bob Steinbach from MVRPC was the facilitator (I am starting to think he’s the only one in town doing this- he’s at EVERYTHING I go to).

So- the quick download: Ideas have been generated, ranked and a timeline put in place. Top of the list:

• A central sports authority.
• Expand the role of the MCCVB (that’s the Montgomery County Convention and Visitors Bureau)
• Look at SportsPlex at the Parkside Home site as a central facility – with tournament capabilities.
• Figure out a way to pay for all this- and track the results.

Still not quite my idea of building on internal strengths and social capital- but, one should feed the other.

Look for something on CH 2 news tonight- and maybe in the Dayton Daily News.

There are still a lot of things on the table. Just being a central location, having cheap accommodations and  friendly people isn’t enough to bring a ton of business- but at least we’re looking forward instead of back.

Nicest thing that’s been said to me in Dayton in years: “It’s always great to have David in a meeting, it makes it so much more interesting.” Thanks Karen Wampler!

I guess I didn’t help myself with my introduction- where we were supposed to state our name, who we were with and what our connection to youth sports was. My answer: David Esrati, The Next Wave, Instigator.

The official report on the meeting will be out in 30 days- hopefully, we’ll also get a list of everyone who was there- and see some real momentum on this.