Soccer camp coming to County’s JetBlue Park
About 300 youth soccer players from around the country and up to 40 coaches will converge on Fort Myers’ JetBlue Park in July as part of Futbol Club Barcelona’s affiliate for youth soccer.
This is the first year the club designed for 6- to 14-year-olds has staged a camp in Fort Myers. The youth day camp runs from July 8-12 and the coaches’ camp runs prior to that on July 6-7.
The Barcelona group is among the highest profile soccer teams worldwide. Futbol Club Barcelona hosts the largest number of spectators of all stadiums in Europe, according to its website, with 98,800 seats sold.
JetBlue Park, home of the Boston Red Sox spring training, is a Lee County Parks & Recreation facility that touts six youth soccer fields that are used for tournament play and youth soccer about 10 months out of the year.
For more information on the camp, visit www.fcbarcelonasoccercamps.com or call (954) 652-8484 for registration. For information on JetBlue Park and other Lee County Parks & Recreation sites, visit www.leeparks.org or call 533-7275.
County’s sports tourism department garners new name
Lee County’s sports tourism department has a new name.
Since its inception in 2002, the department has been called the Lee County Sports Authority office. Lee County Commissioners recently approved changing the name to Lee County Sports Development.
The change eliminates confusion with the department’s original name and the sporting goods store called Sports Authority. Also, the term “development” is a more accurate description of Lee County’s sports tourism efforts, said Jeff Mielke, executive director of the Lee County Sports Development. “We are developing new sports-tourism and economic-impact opportunities,” he said.
Lee County Sports Development partners with Lee County Parks & Recreation and the Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau. For more information, call 344-5201.