Home|Sports|Cooper meets with Miami Dolphins and Orlando MagicSports
Simba FrenchSend an emailSeptember 14, 2022 339 2 minute readFacebookTwitterLinkedInShare via Email
The Bahamas has attracted many sporting events and teams near and far over the years, and Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation Chester Cooper and his team traveled to Florida and met with executives of the professional sporting teams, the Miami Dolphins and Orlando Magic late last week.
The Dolphins play in the National Football League (NFL) and is a favorite team of many Bahamian NFL fans. The Magic plays in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and though the team does not have a huge Bahamian fan base like the Dolphins, it still has Bahamian supporters cheering it on.
Cooper said that they are hoping to use those teams’ large reach to help promote the islands.
“We have met with some of the major sporting teams – the Magic and the Dolphins,” Cooper said. “We expect that we will continue these types of partnerships. They have a very large reach. As you know, these are beloved teams in The Bahamas, especially the Dolphins. I expect that through the course of this ongoing partnership, we will be able to find synergies. We will do joint promotions, will be able to access their databases and certainly we will be able to promote the islands of The Bahamas and Florida.”
Cooper knows that The Bahamas has had relationships with these teams in the past and will look to renew those opportunities.
Creating partnerships with sporting teams and events is one of the plans that Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Mario Bowleg said his ministry has dubbed “Sports in Paradise”.
There are already several sporting events and teams coming to The Bahamas. There are the popular Battle 4 Atlantis collegiate basketball tournament, Baha Mar Hoops college basketball tournament, Junkanoo Jam college basketball tournament in Bimini, Pink Sands golf tournament, Bahamas Bowl football game and the Hero World Challenge, just to name a few.
Several teams, including the Cleveland Browns offensive players, Houston Rockets, Tottenham Hotspurs and the Miami Heat have all made the trip to The Bahamas. The Bahamas has also played host to a few regional and international sporting events. The latest one was the 4th Anita Doherty North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Track and Field Championships in Grand Bahama in August.
The visit to Florida was a part of the ministry’s global sales and marketing mission series. The series of events will continue on to New York later this month. Further stops in the USA include Atlanta, Georgia; Houston, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Los Angeles, California, followed by cities across Canada.
In addition to major travel hubs throughout the US and Canada, the representatives from the ministry will be heading to Brazil and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).