Dalton’s large quantity of fields and convenient interstate location as made it a notable location for sports tournaments. From August 26th to the 30th Dalton hosted the 2020 ISSA Pic-o-Dixie Senior Softball Tournament as 87 teams from across 17 states came together for a socially distanced, COVID-19 compliant tournament. As tournaments and competitions begin planning their events they must provide an organizational plan that meets state and CDC guidelines. Larger tournaments like the Pic-o-Dixie see a diverse range of players staying in local hotels and patronizing local businesses. The Dalton Convention & Visitors Bureau [Dalton CVB] reports that the tournament saw 1,240 attendees in total, bringing in $974,777 to Dalton between hotel reservations, field costs and concessions.
“It’s good to see sports making a return with social distancing,” said CVB Director Margaret Thigpen, “the positive economic impact for the community is definitely some good news we’ve been looking forward to seeing.”