Sports Backers — the nonprofit behind the Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10K Presented by Kroger, Dominion Energy Riverrock and the Richmond Marathon — faced a daunting challenge when the pandemic eliminated group gatherings and events in spring 2020: How do you survive if the activities you’ve created can’t happen?
Answer: You create new ones.
Sports Backers started with the Taco Trot 5K in May, a virtual event. A cute graphic T-shirt designed in-house that read “Will run for tacos” and a modest $17 entry fee encouraged people to take to the streets for their own 3.1-mile run and then stop at a list of suggested restaurants for takeout.
In June 2020, the organization launched the Great American 5000, where teams of participants recorded their running via an online portal, tracking their virtual progress across the country and “visiting” landmarks such as Dinosaur National Monument in Utah, Arsenal Bridge over the Mississippi River and the world’s largest rubber stamp in Cleveland. Participants were also encouraged to donate to Feeding America, raising $31,500 for the nonprofit over the three “runnings” of the GA5K in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Roughly 7,000 people participated.
While that number is dwarfed by the more than 25,000 runners and walkers who participated in the 2019 Monument Avenue 10K, it was something. And the success of the GA5K came as no surprise to Al Kidd, president and CEO of the Sports Events & Tourism Association, the national association for sports commissions and sports tourism agencies.
Kidd remembers when Sports Backers Executive Director Jon Lugbill called him in spring 2020 to say he was planning a virtual race. Sports ETA had just hosted an online trade show, and Lugbill knew Kidd, with whom he’d had many conversations over the years, would be a good sounding board.
“It was such a cool idea, we wanted to do everything we could possibly do to make it work,” Kidd says of the virtual cross-country race. “We used our [Sports ETA] media firm to help send out [announcements]. The race provided much-needed capital at the time when [Lugbill] was thinking about how to stay in business. It was an awesome event.”
Sports Backers’ Dominion Energy Riverrock features music and a mix of events, including trail runs and kayaking and climbing competitions. (Photo by Jesse Peters)
Finding a Way
Kidd wasn’t surprised by Lugbill’s reaction to pandemic challenges. A former marketing and advertising executive who had also run San Diego’s sports commission, Kidd has known Lugbill since the early 2000s and says his skills were evident from their first conversations.
“I found [many nonprofits] were subpar in terms of business acumen until I ran into Jon,” Kidd says. “I could have a meaningful conversation about how to run a business with Jon.
“I would say Jon was a visionary. He shifted [Sports Backers] to a business model where he could have some level of control over sustainability.”
The model had been working well. As a 501(c)(3) organization, Sports Backers’ revenue in fiscal year 2019 was $7.2 million. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, revenue shrunk in 2020 to just under $4.2 million. In response, Lugbill and several senior staff members took pay cuts, while most other staff members were furloughed at various times. Some staff left permanently; the current roster numbers 23.
The organization is bouncing back. Fiscal year 2021 showed revenues of nearly $5.5 million, and 2022’s reported revenues were $6.3 million. Something that hasn’t returned: the paid membership to Sports ETA, which named Sports Backers member of the year in 2006, 2007, 2011 and 2015. “We dropped all our memberships,” Lugbill says. “It’s probably time to rejoin.”
The Starting Line
Sports Backers was formed in 1991, a merger of two groups whose members were interested in local sports, but from different angles. Greater Richmond Sports Backers consisted primarily of business leaders who would gather to listen to speakers — often accomplished athletes — and brainstorm how to support sports activities in the region. Metropolitan Richmond Sports was started by area government localities hoping to attract large sporting events. As the two came together, there were some growing pains.
“In the early years, it was hard work” to merge the business and government sensibilities, says Lugbill, who was hired as then-Metropolitan Richmond Sports Backers’ executive director in spring 1993.
But Lugbill’s experience with the Metropolitan Washington [D.C.] Council of Governments, where he had worked on a feasibility study exploring how the nation’s capital could attract the Olympic Games, proved useful. Also useful was Lugbill’s experience as an athlete. A five-time world champion in whitewater canoeing with a fourth-place finish in the 1992 Olympics, he’s also the only canoeist to appear on a Wheaties box, which happened in 1986.
In 1992, while he was on his Olympic journey, in his day job he was researching how to create a sports commission for the D.C. area. Then he saw an ad for the Sports Backers position.
“I was really looking to do that job switch to sports,” he recalls, “and I thought it would be easier to [create a sports commission] in Richmond than in Washington, D.C.” At the time, Sports Backers was a considerably different entity.
“There were ambitions to do big things, but we didn’t know what that meant at the time,” he says. “We really wanted to improve the community through sports, and there were really wide-ranging thoughts on the board [of directors] as to what that could be.
“Because I competed nationally and internationally, I probably had more of a national and international ambition than what was expected. I was able to look outside of Richmond to see what we could do that was new and different but copy what was happening elsewhere in the world.”
Sometimes, Lugbill recalls, his ideas were met with raised eyebrows.
“People would say, ‘We don’t do it that way here in Richmond,’ and would ask me where I was from,” he says, laughing. “At the time, being from Fairfax was kind of like being from another state. Now, the number of people who live in the Richmond area but are from elsewhere is so much greater.”
Jon Lugbill has served as Sports Backers first — and only — executive director since 1993. (Photo by Ash Daniel)
Big Ambitions
Just a year after Lugbill was hired, the organization chartered a plane to take 140 people — including then-Gov. George Allen — to St. Louis to see the 1994 U.S. Olympic Festival, an event hosted by the U.S. Olympic Committee designed both to showcase and develop U.S. sports talent. At the time, Sports Backers was formulating a proposal to host a future festival and wanted to generate excitement.
But the USOC suspended the Olympic Festivals in 1995, and an effort by Sports Backers to build a new aquatics center in the region came up dry after voters rejected a funding referendum. Successes were found elsewhere.
“We swung for the fences early and often and had some nice wins,” Lugbill notes, pointing to the NCAA national men’s college soccer championships, which Sports Backers lobbied to host in Richmond for four years in the late 1990s; the 1994 NCAA women’s basketball championship; and the 1996 U.S. men’s soccer World Cup qualifying match. But, he says, chasing competitions was tiring and uncertain.
“We originally anticipated doing events that would be spectator events,” he says. “That drives the need for facilities to get renovated and for new ones to be built. The success of sports tourism was a hard sell [then]. I remember thinking we’ve got to stop trying to pound a round peg into a square hole. We have to do what we can with what we have.”
Bobby Ukrop, a Sports Backers founder along with Mike Berry, Allan Strange and Bill Flowers, has remained involved with the organization, serving on the Sports Backers board for multiple terms. He agrees with Lugbill’s description of the organization’s search for direction.
“At the time, people didn’t get what we were talking about,” Ukrop says. “We tried all kinds of things, and that was really good practice for getting involved in the community and grassroots’ efforts. Other sports commissions were looking for the big event; we were looking for economic development and healthy lifestyles.”
Then, in 1998, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, which had sponsored a fall marathon in the city since 1978, decided to bow out of hosting. Sports Backers stepped in. “Jon wrote me a note and said, ‘What do you think?’ ” Ukrop recalls, adding that it was an easy decision.
“Jon was tapping into his experiences and had a passion for these things,” Ukrop adds. “It just made sense to me that when he’d bring things up, I’d say, ‘Let’s go for it.’ ”
A New Model
After taking over management of the Richmond Marathon, an annual race that people could plan for and get excited about, Lugbill had the idea for another race: a 10K.
“My initial pitch to the board was that we were going to create a signature running event for the region,” he says. “The very first one in 2000 needed 1,500 participants just to break even, because of police and road closure costs, and we had 2,500 people [run]. On April 1, 2000, when we saw the event, we knew we had something. The community was desperate to have something to own and be proud of.”
Now, in addition to the Ukrops Monument Avenue 10K Presented by Kroger, Sports Backers has a host of signature events: Dominion Energy Riverrock, the Virginia Credit Union Moonlight Ride, Ashland Half Marathon and CarMax Tacky Light Run, to name a few. All of those, Lugbill says, support the local economy far beyond a simple calculus of how many visitors come to stay in hotels and eat in restaurants — referred to as “heads in beds” in sports tourism parlance.
“When you have one big event that brings a ton of people here for one weekend, it’s nice for business owners that weekend,” he says. “But if you have 30 or 40 events over multiple weekends that happen on an annual basis, then those become the fabric of the community … a baseline part of the economy.”
Additionally, Lugbill says, the events create goodwill both at home and afar.
“If you really do it right, large-scale special events do much more than boost the economy, they can brand your region,” he says. “The most important thing [Dominion Energy Riverrock] does is influence Richmonders to believe that our riverfront and outdoor amenities are really great and good. It’s not just a Chamber of Commerce slogan. [These events] are creating a better place to live, work and play.”
Ukrop agrees.
“Jon is always pushing,” he says. “He’s a world-class athlete, and he brings that world-class effort. He’s willing to push the envelope to think about how can we help the most people possible with active living.”
Signature events such as the Ashland Half Marathon have been essential to Sports Backers’ efforts to make the region more active. (Photo by Ash Daniel)
Spreading the Message
Sports Backers’ Building an Active Future Campaign, launched in 2017, points to “inspiring and creating a more active community for everyone in greater Richmond,” a goal that goes beyond regularly scheduled events. Along with continued support for sports tourism, action items include greater pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, which is represented in Sports Backers’ Bike Walk RVA program, and increasing accessible fitness programs in historically underserved communities.
The Fitness Warriors program trains participants — who are found via word-of-mouth and recruitment initiatives at local gyms and neighborhood gatherings — to lead their own fitness classes. After six months of training, which runs January through June, the Warriors develop their own classes, which are offered for free both in person and online, an addition spurred by the pandemic that has attracted participants from beyond Richmond, including one woman from the Philippines.
“Our classes are open to all ages and abilities,” says Program Director Tiffany Copeland. “Classes are offered intentionally in low-income areas on a bus route to make it easier [to attend]. All you have to do is show up, and we’ll take care of you.”
Copeland says the variety of classes reflect instructors’ interests. “Each trainer gets to design their own class,” she says. “One loves weights. Another does circuits and dance. Another one does cardio and yoga. Another favorite is Twerk and Tone; I think the name alone got the community excited.”
Another plus, she says, is that instructors want to make people feel at home. Copeland herself started her own running journey with Black Girls RUN! in 2016, resisting what she describes as the “notion that as Black people, we don’t run unless we’re running from the cops or a dog.”
“It’s a beautiful thing to go outside on a beautiful day and run for you,” she adds. “It’s truly a time when you can be as selfish as you want to. Every modality of fitness has a place in every person’s life. Find a way to enjoy it and still enjoy yourself.”
Making fitness part of the lives of children is the focus of Sports Backers’ Kids Run RVA program, an offshoot of the Fit for Life Challenge that began in 2005 as a way to encourage children to train for races by keeping a running log as they trained for the 10K or 10K Mini, a 1-mile run for kids held in conjunction with the Monument Avenue 10K. Now, the program sponsors run clubs with volunteer coaches at schools throughout the region, hoping to instill a love of movement.
“We want running clubs everywhere, but we are pretty intentional about getting clubs started in Title 1 schools,” says Jacki Quinlan, the director of Kids Run RVA, noting that Sports Backers provides T-shirts for participants and, if needed by a Title 1 school’s team, will provide running shoes, competition fees and even cover the cost of a school bus to transport the team to a race. “We want to break down any of the barriers so a child can come out and participate in any of our events,” she says.
The success of the program is more than just running. Quinlan points to end-of-year surveys in which participating students say the run club helps them make friends and stay healthy. Plus, kids make connections with their coaches. “That’s the magic sauce,” she says. “Our coaches are mentors for these kids.”
During the pandemic, the program shifted to an online platform, with three different 13-week challenges that encouraged kids to keep an activity log with a variety of fitness activities. Workout Wednesdays featured special guest coaches, including cheerleaders from James Madison University and the Randolph-Macon University basketball team. That change has led to a pilot effort this fall, where five schools will offer fitness clubs, “to learn what works and what doesn’t work,” Quinlan says. “We had to develop all these activities for kids standing in the living room who couldn’t run. They loved learning new exercises. It shifted how we thought about programming in general.”
Nikkia Young first started running in 2014 when she trained for the Monument Avenue 10K with a Sports Backers/YMCA team. She has since run half-marathons and marathons and now serves as a training team coach herself. (Photo by Ash Daniel)
Moving On
“The best things [Jon Lugbill] and his team do is evaluate what they’ve done to see how they’ve really worked,” co-founder Ukrop says. “They’re not afraid to fail and start and do something different.”
Scott Schricker, Sports Backers’ chief strategic implementation officer, was Lugbill’s first full-time hire, joining the organization in fall 1993. When the pandemic hit, he watched his boss do what he does best: paddle.
“Everything was shutting down,” Schricker says. “With a lot of organizations, their first instinct was to cut staff and programs, to hunker down and survive. But Jon was thinking about how can we pivot? How can we generate income, engage with our constituents, have an impact on communities that really need us? His approach was we’re going to be leaders and push through this and set an example and help as many people as we can, keep as many people employed as we can, and position ourselves for what’s next.”
Current Sports Backers board chair Carrie Roth, whose husband, Doug, has also served as chair, sees Sports Backers as an organization that connects people within the community in unexpected ways. “It’s really exciting to see how active and engaged our community has become, with new bike lanes and trails, and new trails to come,” she says. “Jon has built a very strong organization that is purpose-driven and mission-driven, with a team and board all aligned in that endeavor. Sports Backers is a tremendous catalyst to our thriving community. As we want to continue to make our region one of the best in the commonwealth to live, work and play, Sports Backers is leading that effort.”
Nikkia Young, who moved to Richmond in 2013, after finishing college in Roanoke, joined a 10K training team at the Tuckahoe YMCA in early 2014. She first ran the 10K, then a half marathon, then a marathon. She joined the Richmond Road Runners Club, eventually serving as its president. And she’s been a coach for a Sports Backers race training team for nearly a decade.
Through running, Young says, she’s found her place.
“For me, I came to Richmond as a young, Black woman, and all my friends [on my training team] were 45 to 65 [years old],” she says. “I would see these people for dinners, brunch … they became my community. These are the people who moved me into my house, who I’ve traveled with. It’s brought so much friendship and joy to my life.”
The general public might not understand everything that Sports Backers has a hand in, Young says, but that’s okay.
“Sports Backers makes Richmond better for runners, athletes and the general public, too.”
