"Exposure that money can't buy": What hosting Croatia did for Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - For a city that often sits in Washington's shadow, a month as a World Cup team's home delivered something Visit Alexandria could never have afforded on its own.

"This is that money, or exposure, that money can't buy," said Todd O'Leary, president and CEO of Visit Alexandria, reflecting on what hosting the Croatian national soccer team has meant for the city. The destination's international marketing budget, he noted, is "teeny" — "almost a pittance" next to what a city like Washington can spend. Hosting one of the world's best soccer teams for nearly a month, and landing Alexandria in the global World Cup conversation, was a level of visibility the bureau could not have bought.

As Croatia prepared to leave Alexandria on Tuesday for the World Cup's knockout round, O'Leary took stock of a moment that, by his account, poured "rocket fuel" into a sports-tourism strategy the city had been building for years.

A bid that wasn't a given

Alexandria's month with Croatia was never guaranteed. More cities bid to host teams than there were teams to go around, O'Leary said, and the city did not learn it would host Croatia until January. A number of teams looked at Alexandria, he said, but Croatia "loved what we had to offer" — the package, the accessibility, the way the community came together.

Pulling it off meant assembling partners across the city: Episcopal High School as the training base, the hotel community, and the layers of city coordination that came with it, from police to security. That it "all came off, by and large, really, really well," O'Leary said, showed Alexandria in a positive light — and the way residents embraced the team, from the mayor traveling to Philadelphia for Saturday's win to ordinary fans cheering on Croatia, made it "extra special."

The hard part: measuring it

Hosting a closed-camp soccer team is an unusual assignment for a tourism bureau, which typically deals in ticketed, countable events like the city's jazz festival. O'Leary was candid that much of the impact is difficult to quantify.

Some of it is measurable, and the numbers will come in stages. Hotel data should arrive within a few weeks — by shortly after the July 4 holiday — giving a clearer picture of stays tied to Croatia and to the broader World Cup, for which Alexandria marketed itself as a central base with access to Reagan National, Dulles and Amtrak. A fuller economic read, including transportation and food-and-beverage spending, should follow by year's end. The team's hotel stay, its rental of Episcopal, and related spending all factor in.

But the bigger value, O'Leary suggested, resists a spreadsheet. Leveraging "the global sporting event of the year" to draw attention to a city that punches above its weight — and doing it on an international stage Alexandria rarely reaches — is "exposure money can't buy."

A conversation with Croatia's tourism ministry

One concrete thread did emerge. Croatia's Ministry of Tourism and Sport visited Alexandria, took a city tour, and met with Mayor Alyia Gaskins and her team, O'Leary said, to discuss ways the two might work together and share best practices. He cautioned the talks were early and without specifics — but called them an unexpected and intriguing result of simply hosting the team.

It is the kind of relationship-building that Gaskins has signaled she wants to continue. In a statement to The Brief last week, the mayor said hosting Croatia had generated "amazing" momentum and energy for the city.

"Our city is now being recognized among international travelers as a top travel destination because of our historic charm, walkable streets, unique retailers and restaurants, and welcoming residents," Gaskins said. "I think we should find ways to build on our growing relationship with the Croatian community to spur more opportunities for cultural exchange, sports tourism, and friendship."

What it meant on the ground

For O'Leary, some of the most meaningful moments were small and local. Several Visit Alexandria members have Croatian ties: Wine Gallery 108, owned by Lisa Katic, who is of Croatian descent, began carrying Croatian wines and hosting tastings before each of the team's matches. Old House Cosmopolitan, a Balkan restaurant in Old Town, took part in myriad ways — including hosting the Croatian cultural group that drove down from Pittsburgh to perform at the June 10 community event, feeding them and giving them a place to change into their traditional attire.

Those stories, O'Leary said, reflect "the hospitality, heart and spirit of this community."

Why it matters to residents

Asked why the success of an event like this matters to Alexandrians who may not follow soccer, O'Leary pointed to both the tangible and the intangible. Tourism brings "incremental" revenue, he said — money from visitors that helps pay for services residents enjoy, without residents footing the bill. The intangible, he said, is civic pride: Alexandria "punching above its weight" and putting itself on the global stage, an opportunity the whole community — not just Visit Alexandria, Episcopal or the team's hotel — seized together.

What comes next

The challenge now is sustaining the momentum. Visit Alexandria's new fiscal year begins July 1 without the "tentpole events" — the World Cup and the city's America 250 celebrations — that have anchored its recent calendar. The central marketing question for the year ahead, O'Leary said, is how to keep riding the wave of both in their absence. He said the bureau would share specifics at its annual meeting in September, which this year also marks Visit Alexandria's 30th anniversary as a standalone destination organization.

Whatever the numbers ultimately show, O'Leary expects the effects to linger. "There's going to continue to be sort of reverberations of positivity coming out of this," he said, "well after the Cup is even done."