About Us

Cedar Valley Sports & Entertainment Commission

The Cedar Falls and Waterloo Convention and Visitors Bureaus have long recognized the great potential the Cedar Valley has for hosting large sporting events. We have excellent facilities, are conveniently located in the middle of the United States, can offer competitive rates for hotels, restaurants and other important amenities, and have a dedicated volunteer based for a variety of different sports. In an effort to capitalize on this opportunity, the Cedar Valley Sports and Entertainment Commission was formed around five years ago. Last year, thanks to the dedication of dozens of engaged volunteers, over $150,000 was raised to provide assistance to 13 events providing $6.5 million impact to the Cedar Valley.

So far, the organization has been comprised of a number of passionate and skilled volunteers, led by the Sports Marketing Director of the Waterloo Convention and Visitors Bureau. Originally this was Aaron Buzza, who was replaced by Dawn Breakenridge when Aaron was promoted to the CVB’s Executive Director’s position. This arrangement has served us all well and allowed the Commission to mature into the kind of organization we all envisioned it could be.

When Dawn resigned her position with the Waterloo CVB, we were presented with an opportunity. Do we continue operating as before or do we take the organization to the next level? A task force consisting of Dave Buck, Beth Knipp and Aaron Buzza representing the Waterloo Convention and Visitors Bureau; Troy Dannen, Shalee Boyles and myself, representing the Cedar Falls Tourism and Visitors Bureau; Drew Conrad and Mark Gallagher representing the Cedar Valley Sports and Entertainment Commission; and Kelly Engelken representing the Waverly Chamber of Commerce was convened to explore various options. All four organizations, believing additional opportunities exist to bring big events in, agreed to increase our investments and engage the services of a full-time executive director for the Sports Commission. How exciting! Details regarding our position can be found at www.CedarValleySports.org. We hope to have this individual in place when we convene the industry at our third annual Cedar Valley Sports Summit after the first of the year.

We’ve come a long way in five years. We’ve assisted a number of exciting new events including the NWCA/Cliff Keen National Wrestling Duals, Waterloo Softball Association tournaments, NCAA Division III Women’s Golf National Tournament, Dan Gable International Wrestling Museum events, Waterloo Youth Hockey Association events, USA Wrestling Kids/Cadets National Tournament, Cedar Valley Moonlight Classic Soccer Tournament, Water Hawks Ski Tournaments, Cedar Valley Trails Festival, Peregrine Charities Triathlon, Trekman Racing events, Black Hawk Swim Club events, and many others. We’ve set up a kickin’ web site with a wealth of information about facilities, our community and volunteers. We’ve established a partnership with other Sports Commissions from around the state through a Team Iowa collaboration to buy down sponsorships and attend shows like the National Sports Commissions Symposium. We’ve successfully accessed $150,000 in Regional Sports Authority District funding from the state over the last three years. We are extremely excited to bring a full time director on board to build on these beginnings and bring even more sports to the Cedar Valley!