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Image Source: Myrtle Beach Sports Center
Sure, South Carolina’s beaches are beautiful, but one of the most impactful economic stories in the state right now involves a 12-year-old in cleats, a family of four checking into a hotel on a Friday afternoon, and a weekend tournament bracket that pumps millions into local economies most people couldn’t find on a map.
Image Source: Myrtle Beach Sports Center
South Carolina’s tourism industry generated a record $31 billion in total economic impact in 2025, supports one in 10 jobs statewide, and produces nearly $2 billion annually in state and local taxes, according to the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism. Those are staggering numbers.
But the most intriguing part of that story is that it’s happening on soccer pitches in the Pee Dee, on BMX tracks along the Catawba River, and inside a 170,000-square-foot sports center in downtown Rock Hill.
Three South Carolina cities — Florence, Greenville, and Rock Hill — are rewriting the playbook on what sports tourism looks like when midsize communities go all in. Each started from a different place. Each made a different bet. All three are winning.
Greenville’s transformation from shuttered textile town to one of America’s most celebrated small cities is well-documented. What doesn’t get enough attention is how deeply sports infrastructure has been woven into that story.
Tourism delivered a $2.5 billion economic impact to Greenville County in 2024, according to VisitGreenvilleSC’s annual report. Visitors generated $201 million in taxes, hotel revenue growth outpaced Chattanooga, Knoxville, Birmingham, Charleston, and Savannah, and passenger volume at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport topped 3 million for the first time in 2025, as reported by Greenville Business Magazine.
The prime example is Fluor Field, home of the Greenville Drive, a Boston Red Sox Single-A affiliate. Privately constructed in 2006 in the city’s then-blighted West End, the ballpark attracts an estimated 500,000 visitors every year.
An economic impact study by Tom Regan at the University of South Carolina, commissioned by VisitGreenvilleSC, revealed that Fluor Field has produced a total of $288.5 million in economic impact over the last decade, with $34 million in 2024 alone. Since its construction, 433 new business permits have been issued within half a mile, resulting in an estimated $277 million in new business activity.
“As we look at Greenville today, we are proud of the role that Fluor Field has played, serving as the catalyst for the renaissance of the West End over the past 20 years. It has been nothing short of amazing to witness people of all ages and backgrounds gather at Fluor Field and the emerging West End Entertainment District to enjoy all that Greenville has to offer,” Craig Brown, owner and chairman, Greenville Drive, told Greenville Business Magazine.
The Bon Secours Wellness Arena, a 15,500-capacity venue hosting approximately 130 ticketed events annually, has contributed more than $2 billion in cumulative economic impact since opening in 1998, according to SC Biz News. A proposed $150 to $170 million renovation and surrounding entertainment district signals that Greenville has no intention of coasting.
Image Source: Myrtle Beach Sports Center
Rock Hill’s sports tourism story is the boldest of the three, with the numbers backing it up.
When the textile mills that had defined Rock Hill for a century began closing in the late 1970s and ’80s, the city needed a new identity. It started in 1985, when local businessman James Milton Cherry donated part of his alfalfa farm to the state. The city built Cherry Park, a $4.6 million softball complex whose estimated direct economic impact in 2024 alone reached $10.1 million, according to a PBS Carolina Impact report that aired in March 2025.
What followed was four decades of doubling down. Manchester Meadows is a 70-acre complex for soccer, football, and lacrosse. The Rock Hill Tennis Center. The BMX Supercross Track and Giordana Velodrome. And the centerpiece: the Rock Hill Sports and Event Center, a 170,000-square-foot, $28 million indoor facility with a 1,200-seat championship court and eight basketball courts convertible to 16 volleyball courts.
Total investment across all facilities: $58.3 million. Estimated direct economic impact for fiscal year 2024: nearly $125 million, according to PBS Carolina Impact. More than 250,000 people visited the Sports and Event Center that year alone. In 2017, Rock Hill hosted the UCI BMX World Championships—generating nearly $20 million in direct economic impact, according to The Post and Courier—and became the only community in the world to host the event twice when UCI returned in 2024.
And the investment keeps expanding. In 2024, the city approved a $15 million sports arena near downtown, projected to generate between $27 million and $36 million in annual economic impact, according to City Manager David Vehaun, as reported by The Herald. The hospitality tax Rock Hill implemented in the early 2000s now generates nearly $8 million annually for the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Department, according to South Carolina Public Radio.
“It’s about maintaining who we are as a people in this state. When COVID came in, everything shut down. The first live televised event in the country was because of a waiver by a certain governor that allowed the cornhole championships to be shown on ESPN at the Rock Hill Sports and Event Center. It’s been looped in ever since,” Rock Hill Mayor John Gettys told WLTX.
South Carolina’s tourism industry has grown 65 percent over the past decade, according to figures presented at the 60th annual Governor’s Conference on Travel and Tourism. The state’s STAR grant program has awarded more than $3 million to local destinations for event recruitment, supporting 132 events from collegiate championships to international cornhole competitions.
But the real story is what happened when three cities, each facing different challenges, each working with different assets, decided that sports tourism wasn’t a side project. It was the strategy. Florence turned a geographic advantage into an economic one.
Greenville proved a ballpark could spark the rebirth of an entire neighborhood. And Rock Hill transformed a shuttered textile economy into a $125 million sports tourism engine that competes on the world stage.
That’s the scoreboard that matters. And right now, South Carolina is winning.
