Senior Sports Development Manager at Visit Winston-Salem tells her story about following your life’s passions for success
In this edition of Faces of Sports Tourism by Sports Planning Guide, we sit down with Bonny Bernat with Visit Winston-Salem. Bernat worked in the tourism industry in Massachusetts before relocating to North Carolina. She has also spent time working with the Sports Events and Tourism Association (Sports ETA) on education, which is a great passion of hers.
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Tell us about your background
I always like to say that I think I arrived at my current position in a very roundabout and untraditional path, and I went through many industries prior to landing in sport tourism. I’ve been in insurance and manufacturing software, just to mention a couple, and through all that, I had been working part-time on my undergraduate degree.
It wasn’t until my early thirties that I made the decision to finish my degree on a full-time basis and enrolled at [then] Worcester State, [now Worcester University], as a non-traditional student. While I was going through that process of self-reflection and spending all this money on a degree, I was trying to figure out where I wanted to spend the rest of my career and kept asking myself, ‘What do I love?’ and sports just kept coming back.
I was born in Massachusetts and raised there most of my adult life. I obviously knew at that point in time, when I was getting my degrees, that as much as I wanted to work for the Patriots, Bruins, or Red Sox, I understood that it probably wasn’t going to be a reality for me. It wasn’t until I did a project during my graduate studies that I learned that there was such a thing as sports-tourism and felt that maybe this would be my new path.
That project led me to my first job in tourism, working for the CVB in Springfield [Massachusetts]. During my time there, I eventually moved into sales and sports was a small segment of my overall markets, even though both basketball and volleyball were founded in the area and the American Hockey League was headquartered. One of my markets was motorcoach and that would be where I made the right connections to launch my sport tourism journey.
I was fortunate to have met colleagues from the Charlotte CVB and when they found out about my interest in possibly relocating to North Carolina and pursuing a sports career, they quickly extended an invitation to visit. On a trip to Myrtle Beach to visit family, I had arranged to make that visit, but I remember sitting on a beach, reading books, and contemplating whether it would be worth driving the three hours to Charlotte. But I did it anyway. That colleague knew how much I was interested specifically in motorsports and he set up all kinds of motorsports-related activities while I was with him that day.
That’s when I knew that this is where I need to be and what I want to do, and a short six months later, in May 2027, I moved to Charlotte. By the second week, I was in the infield for the All-Star Race and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is incredible—but I can’t be a fan girl!’
Unfortunately, you know, given the timing, in 2008 the economy tanked, and the motorsports industry took a huge hit regarding sponsorships and things like that. I then found myself looking for a new job in 2009 and happened across a position at Visit Winston-Salem. That’s where it all came together.
How did you get into your current role as Senior Sports Development Manager?
I originally worked for Visit Winston-Salem for many years, starting back in 2009 as their Sports Sales Manager. I was then pursued for an opportunity at Sports ETA, which I was really excited about because it would allow me to focus on education in sports tourism, but that didn’t work out long term as planned. Having given a lot to the industry at that point, I felt that I needed a break for a bit.
With my interest in the craft beer industry, even being president of my homebrew club, I then started working for a brewery. I was doing all their business development and event planning, which was a great mix of my passions since we were located right across from the Greensboro Coliseum.
Experience and sport tourism really came into play there because we worked with the University of Virginia during the ACC Men’s Basketball tournament as their primary fan engagement location. They were planning to come back for the NCAA Men’s Basketball first and second rounds the following week, but when the site selections were announced, they were assigned to a different location.
When I found out my position was open again at Visit Winston-Salem, people approached me and asked if I was coming back. In that moment, I knew that that was what I was supposed to do next. Hearing that what I was doing in the community had an impact on people, that [aligned me] in the direction I needed to go in. Here I am, back at Visit Winston-Salem, for just a little over a year now.
What would you consider your favorite part about your job?
I think this is probably true for a lot of people in our industry, but I think it’s the relationship building. That’s one of my strengths. I’m a detailed-oriented person. I love to get a proposal, go through it, and then try to connect all the pieces. I want as much of our community as possible to touch something that we’re working on because, for one, they need to see the impact. What does [a particular] event do for our community? We’re not going to bring a tournament to a facility and just be done with it. I want people to know that it’s there and we want them to be involved and volunteer.
What makes Winston-Salem, North Carolina stand out in a busy sports tourism market?
Aside from affordability, better recognition of your event and our convenient location on the East Coast, I would say our privately owned facilities. I feel we are fortunate that a lot of our venues are privately owned. I think in these cases you’re dealing directly with the ownership and the management of that facility; you don’t have to go through a lot of layers to get approvals and things like that. These facilities are also owned by individuals in our community who are passionate about sports and understand the importance of the economic impact these events have on our destination.
What’s your favorite sport to play or watch?
I am one of those people who own every piece of athletic equipment possible and I’m not good at any of them! That said, I would say the latest sport I’ve taken up is pickleball. I own a paddle and balls for both outdoor and indoor, but I just haven’t had time to play as much as I wanted to.
As for watching, you know, it’s the fall season for me, all my favorite sports are on. October’s always the sweet spot because for me it’s baseball, football, and hockey seasons. I’m not a huge basketball fan, but since I’ve moved to North Carolina, I’ve learned to appreciate college basketball.
Who do you root for?
I’m always going to be a New England fan, first and foremost— Patriots, Red Sox, and Bruins for sure. Having originally been in Hartford as the Whalers, I have a strong affiliation with the Carolina Hurricanes as well—unless they’re playing the Bruins.
You know, for a little while I followed the Buccaneers because of Rob Gronkowski, who has been one of my favorite Patriots players. The combination with him and Tom Brady, which nearly gave me a heart attack when they initially moved to Tampa, well, I had to follow them for a little bit. Otherwise, I would say it’s always going to be New England first and then anything North Carolina affiliated. Some days though, it’s a tossup where I’ll ask myself, ‘Am I going to wear a [Carolina] Panthers jersey or a Patriots jersey today?
What is Winston-Salem building or renovating right now?
I’ll be honest, we’re at capacity in some of our venues, especially with fields and our indoor court facility, RISE. That building has been at capacity since the doors opened. We probably could have built 16 courts and still been just as busy.
One of our communities, Kernersville, lies right between Winston-Salem and Greensboro and has a Parks & Recreation Department that gets it! Their Director, Ernie Pages, has been there for probably 20+ years now and he has been pushing sport tourism for years in that community, and just trying to explain to people what it is.
Coming out of COVID, as they were lifting the outdoor restrictions, his three-diamond field facility hosted a baseball tournament. He was soon fielding calls from hotels and town officials asking where the people were coming from, why they were staying in the hotels, and what they were doing in town. That was the push Ernie needed to get the town to understand the economic impact of sport tourism. Those fields are in a larger complex, Ivy M. Redmond Sports Complex, which will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony the first week of December for their new on-site Recreation and Event Center.
Interestingly, there are already plans for an expansion to add additional flexible space. We’re only starting with these three courts, but once the ribbon gets cut on that building and we start to see the revenue turning around, we know we’ll need more space.
I think the more success stories we see happening like this, we’ll see more collaboration between Parks and Rec Departments.
Any recent and upcoming events?
The ribbon cutting ceremony I mentioned earlier in Kernersville will take place in early December at Ivey M. Redmon Sports Complex. The building features three NBA-size courts, one with seating for more than 700, a multipurpose room, two flex programming rooms and an indoor, elevated walking track.
Get in contact with Bonny Bernat
336.728.7215
