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Zephyrhills to host international shuffleboard contest

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By GEOFF FOX | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 9, 2009

ZEPHYRHILLS - Just driving through this small town between the Green Swamp and Interstate 75, you might not take it for the kind of place that people from around the globe would flock to for the chance to wield paddles and shove weighted pucks onto large, sectioned triangles.

It's not like the city doesn't have a picturesque park, an array of restaurants, plenty of hotel rooms and relatively minor traffic congestion.

But is Zephyrhills really the kind of city where you'd expect to find people from Australia, Brazil, Canada and Japan spending their money to travel to for a shuffleboard tournament?

The Betmar Acres Mobile Home Park, a 55-and-older community near Gall Boulevard and State Road 54 will be that destination next week, when it hosts the International Shuffleboard Association's World Singles tournament, which starts Wednesday and ends Oct. 18.

Precisely how much of an economic impact the tournament will have for the city is hard to calculate.

"I'm sure the hotels and restaurants will something," City Manager Steve Spina said. "I know when Sky Dive City [a popular location for skydivers from around the globe] has things like that they sometimes give change in $2 bills to figure out how much the skydivers are spending locally."

Georgia Downey, general manager at the Microtel Inn & Suites on Gall Boulevard-U.S. 301, said many overseas reservations were made months in advance.

"I'm not sold out yet, but we might see more people coming in from around the state next week," said Downey, who has worked at Microtel about four years. "The people from Australia made their reservations last summer. They find us online when they look up the tournament."

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 731-1239.

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