This story is part of the Dallas Business Journal’s 2020 Women in Business Awards program. The virtual event was held on August 19. Click here for more information on the event. 

Monica Paul’s job is always challenging. The executive director for the Dallas Sports Commission is tasked with bringing sporting events to North Texas and competes with other large U.S. metro areas trying to do the same.

COVID-19 presented another challenge altogether. While some industries figured out how to pivot to work from home and host client meetings over video chat, sports simply couldn’t happen for a period of several months while athletic directors and league commissioners grappled with how to safely play sports in a pandemic.

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Paul laid out the grim numbers. So far, DFW has had 32 events canceled since the start of COVID-19 representing $191 million in lost economic impact. For the rest of the year, Paul projected another 22 events to cancel and another $132 million in lost economic impact.

“They are big numbers for us,” Paul said. “We’re not discounting, by any means, the fall. We do have some events that are going to take place so we’re focused on them. But we’re really trying to focus on the spring and getting an idea of how we can assist some of our clients in planning for those events.”

Some of those events include a National Cheerleaders Association All-Star event, VEX Robotics World Championship and the Lone Star Volleyball Classic tournament.

Another challenge for Paul? Her once eight-person team is now four as a lot of the organization’s funding comes through things like hotel night stays and visitors coming to town, which has been depressed since the pandemic started and is not projected to come back en masse soon.

Despite the challenges, Paul and her team have their sights set on bringing some massive sporting events to North Texas this decade, including the World Cup.

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