Hundreds of youth baseball teams are coming to Houston this weekend to participate in a regional tournament — which is expected to generate millions of dollars in local economic impact.
Florida-based Perfect Game, a baseball and softball scouting and events company, will bring nearly 1,000 teams from 28 states to the Houston region March 1-4 for its 2024 Houston Super Regional NIT Tournament. The company is no stranger to these types of events as it hosts well over 9,000 tournaments and events throughout the country annually. However, none of those events comes close to the scale of this weekend’s local tournament, said Taylor McCullough, Perfect Game’s vice president of operations.
Youth baseball teams in the 6-14U age group will compete in games starting March 1, with championship games being played March 3-4 depending on age group. The tournament will span 150 fields in 33 different baseball complexes across the Greater Houston area. Additionally, 350 umpires will be used, many of whom are coming to Houston from different states.
The company continues to bring the massive tournament to Houston because the city has the proper infrastructure to support it, McCullough said. There’s not many cities in the U.S. that have as many baseball complexes and fields that are easily accessible like in Houston, he said. Additionally, the city is a robust amateur baseball market with a strong base of local teams, which McCullough said is “critical” for running a tournament like this.
“I don’t know that we could pull this off anywhere else in the country,” he said.
The company also continues to innovate with the event, which McCullough described as a “staple in our schedule annually.” Perfect Game is hosting its first-ever PG Fest for the tournament, which will include a vendor village for various vendors and partners, an MLB The Show tournament, live music, a home run derby and a drone light show. The company will host the fan festival March 1 at the Baseball USA Facility in northwest Houston.
Perfect Game also has partnered with the Astros Foundation to provide discounted tickets for tournament participants and their families to the 24th annual Astros Foundation College Classic at Minute Maid Park.