Abrego: International soccer tournaments can bring tourism dollars to Brownsville

BROWNSVILLE, Tx – This past Friday, Q7 Sports held a conference at the Brownsville Convention and Visitors Bureau announcing its International Summer Soccer Cup to be held on July 10-13.

Q7 Sports is a South Texas based sports tournament company founded in 2018. It currently holds three sports tournaments each year: the Brownsville International Soccer Summer Cup, the Brownsville Princess Cup 2025 and the McAllen International Cup 2025. However, the company’s general director, Jorge Quiroz, said they will be adding two more events such as a halloween event and a flag football tournament. 

Quiroz was inspired to start Q7 sports from his experience playing soccer professionally in another country. Administrative Coordinator, Erica Calvo, said Quiroz wanted to expose kids to a different and new experience, competing with international teams. 

“Everyone needs to travel, out of their comfort zone, out of their hometown,” Calvo said. “It is a vast world out there. You can learn a lot from different cultures.”

Charlie Abrego

Charlie Abrego, area sales manager for Magnolia Hospitality Services, attended the press conference and spoke in an interview on how Q7 Sports tournaments are beneficial to Brownsville hotel sales. 

Abrego said he manages sales for the Holiday Inn and the Holiday Inn Express in Brownsville and these tournaments pick up sales traction for the hotel’s weekend business times. The hotels are not currently partnering with Q7 Sports but Abrego said in the future the Holiday Inn hotels would “love to work something out.”

“We are going to have pizza for them and little thank yous for the kids, and they all like that,” Abrego said. “Our hotels also have meeting spaces where we can actually have them hang out and they could do some team building, or just get together and get organized.”

Quiroz said this tournament could allow the continuation of  developing sports in the Rio Grande Valley. He said his long term goal with the competitions is to open up real opportunities for kids interested in sports.

“We want people to come to Brownsville, to get to know Brownsville, to see all its attractions, to see it as a tourist center,” Quiroz said. “I think that way it can have some beneficial impact on the city.”

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