The Jefferson Cup is one of the premier youth soccer tournaments in the country and, for the first time will hold four of its games in Stafford County during their 2020 event.
- The Tournament has been held regularly in Richmond since 1981 and is hosted by the Richmond Strikers soccer club.
Every year about 800 boys and girls teams from around the country signed up to participate in the tourney, only 300 are selected to attend.
- In 2018, the girls’ side was ranked 7th in the nation in youth soccer tourneys, the boys’ side was ranked 5th.
- Over 400 colleges attend the tournament to scout for players, this includes colleges such as George Mason University, Virginia Tech, College of William and Mary, James Madison University, among others.
Stafford County has attracted the tournament as part of its initiative to attract more tourism to the area.
- Sports tourism, along with meetings/conventions, and leisure/cultural heritage events have been the main focus of the plan.
- The County also attracted the Kayak Bass Fishing Trail Series Tournament which will be held in 2020 and 2021. The event will be nationally televised on the fishing show “Kayak Bassin’”
- The County also hopes to attract the Marine Corps Marathon. The MC Historic Half is held in Fredericksburg and will be held on May 17, 2020.
Stafford currently has a partnership with Fredericksburg City and Spotsylvania County to help each other with tourism.
- It expires on June 30, 2020, and there have been no signs that it will be renewed.
- The partnership had been in place since 1994 and was meant to pool resources to get more people to travel to the region.
- Each jurisdiction spends $117,000 to fund the partnership agreement.
- A recent study by Fredericksburg found that the city made more of an effort to attract tourism when compared to the two other localities.
The economic effect of the Jefferson Cup could be significant, as a 2013 study showed that Richmond gains about $15 million annually due to the event.
- The tourney will hold its games every weekend in March at Embrey Mill Park.
- Team registration for the tournament is currently open.
