At the May 19 Foley city council work session, Don Staley made a presentation about an agreement between the Foley Sports Tourism Complex and the Reese’s Senior Bowl.

“The Senior Bowl is in Mobile and they do some stuff in Fairhope,” Staley said. “Through conversations with Phil (Savage, executive director of Reese’s Senior Bowl), we wanted to go ahead and try to brand Foley going forward as we build out. Who’s to say that we couldn’t — down the road — do camps and clinics at our facility? All these pro folks are coming in, all college guys coming in to train … why does it have to just be in Fairhope? Why can’t they come here and do some training?”

This could lead to coaches wanting to do camps and clinics in Foley.

“So what has transpired, is we’re going to do a ‘stick-your-toe-in-the-water’ event, if you will,” Staley explained.

Flag football introductory camps for boys and girls, ages 6 to 12, will begin on Tuesdays Oct. 4, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. and end on Nov. 8. There will be an introductory camp at the complex Sept. 13.

“We’re branding ourselves with the Senior Bowl,” Staley said. “Which, in turn, allows us to get the notoriety for being part of a well-recognized organization. And this isn’t just the Senior Bowl; it’s also the NFL. This is branding with the NFL.”

City of Foley’s Economic Director Jeff Rouzie mentioned Savage’s connections with the NFL will allow Foley opportunities with NFL coaches and college coaches to bring in clinics that will generate tremendous income and notoriety for the city.

“In addition to that — down the road — there are three All Star games,” Rouzie explained. “The NFL is looking for ways to combine these three games where scouts can go to one location and evaluate all players. Who’s to say that couldn’t happen here? The Senior Bowl will probably always be in Mobile, but where the real money and interest lies is during the practices.”

Rouzie stressed the opportunities available with this agreement.

“The NFL sponsors all flag football leagues and they have different divisions where they do different types of clinics, everything from A to Z,” Rouzie said. “There’s a ton of opportunity here; it’s a great thing. This branding will be national that we receive through the Senior Bowl and it’s going to lead to other things.”

Michael Thompson, Foley’s city administrator, noted the clinics will be on Tuesdays, not the weekends which are typically used for tournaments.

“You guys are doing tournaments on the weekends,” he said. “Tuesday is kind of an underutilized day for our fields.”

Don agreed and mentioned it will be a low impact event.

“Imagine the first time somebody comes over here from the Senior Bowl that’s a college coach or a professional coach and sees our facilities when it’s all built out,” he said. “The future is exciting here in Foley.”