You’ve got to play all four quarters, and sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way. But win or lose, big-time sports are a home run for any local economy, some local officials think, and they’re looking for your help to bring new events Carroll County’s way.

“If you look at the (sports) facilities in Carroll County available to us, they’re probably better than any in the state,” said county Commissioner Randy Simpkins. “That means we have a great resource for economic development for our area that we could take advantage of, and we want to identify what resources we have available, and how we could use them.”

Simpkins is one of several local officials who want to create a “sports council” for the county. The council would focus on the economic impact of sports in Carroll County, and try to lure new events to the area to stimulate growth.

One of the sports council’s supporters is Walter Dunson, the former all-county football player at Central High School during the late 1980s who went on to play professional football with the Arizona Cardinals and the San Diego Chargers.

Dunson has experience with large sporting events. After his professional football career ended, Dunson worked as the youth football manager for the Atlanta Falcons, and grew that program from “almost zero kids” to more than 40,000 in three years, he said.

Dunson then founded Global Youth Sports Management in 2005, a youth sports-development company that has an office in Carrollton.

“With my company we’ve had a lot of success in other communities, taking major events to cities around the United States,” Dunson said. “I would love to see Carroll County benefit from those type of things, not just for the economic factor, but also so our kids can be exposed to different opportunities that are available. ... Through these events kids can face competition from other counties, states and countries, and most importantly see different cultures.”

The city of Carrollton has lured several large sporting events, including the Junior Olympics National Cross Championship championship five year ago. Those type of events have been a huge help to the city and area businesses, said Jonathan Dorsey, executive director of the Carrollton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“It really is a gold mine of economic impact,” Dorsey said. “Carrollton and Carroll County at large have really been in the forefront of this kind of tournament business for years and years.”

Dorsey said the city estimates that for every overnight visitor, the local economy gets roughly $100 per day, and $50 for day-trip visitors.

“These tournaments have an overwhelmingly positive impact on every member of the community,” Dorsey said. “When you bring money from outside an economy into an economy without having to build infrastructure, then you’ve made a huge profit. ... It doesn’t take too long to see how much of a great impact you can have with these events.”

Dunson said some of the events he thought about targeting included regional tournaments for the Little League World Series, as well as hosting a number of Amateur Athletic Union events for basketball, golf, soccer and other sports.

Jim O’Reilly, director of leisure services for the City of Gulfport, Fla., which hosts the Southeastern Region tournament for the Little League World Series every year, said the tournament was “a great boost to the economy.”

“You’re basically looking at 90 kids plus their families coming down here every year,” O’Reilly said. “And that impacts all of the peripheral restaurants, hotels and other businesses in the area.”

Daniel Jackson, executive director for Carroll Tomorrow, said a Carroll County sports council would probably hold its first meeting no later than February. In the meantime, Jackson said he, Simpkins and Dunson were looking to bring other area officials and business leaders into the fold.

“What we all agreed on is we need to come up with a list of everybody and anybody who has an interest or could help make this happen,” Jackson said. “We need to bring them to the table, gather up stakeholders...and focus on the economic development of Carroll County through sports.”