Withers Broadcasting will be host of annual Great Outdoors Sports Show

Many families enjoy the great outdoors, and families have been enjoying the Great Outdoors Sports Show since its inception in 1988.

The sports show, which runs Friday through Sunday, will feature more than 50 vendors this year that will display items such as pools and barbecues, campers and RVs and hunting and fishing equipment.

"Whenever people think of a sports show they think automatically of men, but there's a wide variety of different things for the entire family whenever they come to something like this because not only are there vendors there that have products that deal with the outdoors, there's also vendors there that have food sampling going on," said Carolyn Asmus, sales manager at Withers Broadcasting.

The vendors at the Great Outdoors Sports Show are from all over the region. Asmus said the vendors represent a lot of the activities available for people in southeast Missouri and southern Illinois.

Asmus said Withers has been the media partner for the Sports Show since the beginning but recently took it over, which means the Withers' sales team has been responsible for getting all the vendors last year and this year.

"We start planning about August because some of the businesses we deal with are seasonal, so if we don't catch them while they're in their seasons it can be a little harder to run them down in the winter months," Asmus said.

Some of the seasonal businesses include those that sell pools and spas, boating equipment and barbecue companies. The sports show also features businesses that tailor to motorcycle riders, golfers and campers.

People gather around a vendor at the Great Outdoors Sports Show last year. Submitted photo

The average attendance for the Sports show is 5,000 people, and Asmus said she expects about the same number of attendees this year.

Josh Hanlon, the marketing director of the Show Me Center, said the main reason so many people attend the sports show every year is because there is not another show like that in the area.

"It's just a win-win for the community," Hanlon said. "When we have shows it brings in people from all over the area, not just from Cape and Jackson, those that are staying in hotels, those that are spending money at restaurants and other places as well."

The Show Me Center staff likes holding shows and events that help the community, and the Great Outdoors Sports Show definitely does that, Hanlon said.

Hanlon said when planning events at the Show Me Center he likes to bring things that attract the public.

This year's sports show is from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Show Me Center. Admission is $5 for adults, and children 6 years old and younger get in for free.