Matt Armbrister gets a lot of blank stares when he introduces himself as executive director of the Lawrence Sports Corp.
“Some people have heard of us and don’t know what we do,” Armbrister said. “Some people have never heard of us.”
Armbrister, the executive director of the LSC a not-for-profit arm of the Lawrence Convention & Visitors Bureau for the past year, hopes to be heard.
The Lawrence Sports Corp. is sponsoring Saturday’s men’s volleyball match between the United States and Australian national teams at Horejsi Center, and Armbrister hopes to use that event as a springboard to regional prominence.
“I just got the reins,” Armbrister said, “and I’m taking it out for a spin. I just got a new car with a lot of horsepower, and I want to see what it can do.”
The LSC has been around 11 years. It had a hand in luring the Junior Olympics to town back in 1988, and it helped get and keep the Sunflower State Games in town.
In short, the Lawrence Sports Corp. markets and promotes the city as a destination for sporting events that help the community economically and socially.
Saturday’s match set for 7 p.m. at Horejsi, with $12 tickets available at Hy-Vee, the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce and Sport 2 Sport is an example of the latter.
“We’re not out to make money on this,” Armbrister said. “If we do, great. But we see this as an opportunity to get our feet wet. And it’s a great chance to see these guys in an Olympic year. I saw them out in Colorado, and they’re just incredible. They don’t want to play in large venues. They want the smaller, more intimate settings. And, ideally, we can use this as a springboard to bring in events that are more lucrative to the community and more economically beneficial.
“Don’t get me wrong. We’d like to make money on this. There is a break-even point. If we sell-out, we’ll make a little money, and I don’t think we’ll have a problem selling out.
“We hope this is something we can build on. We’d like to bring in something like this every year, and we hope this will make us more visible.”
