Anthony Travel

Anthony Travel has spent decades building a specialized business around university and college sports travel. The company now works with over 90 university partners, including Penn State, Alabama, Clemson, Duke, and Harvard, positioning itself as the nation's largest provider of university and sports travel management. This level of institutional entrenchment is difficult to replicate and signals both trust and scale. Anthony Travel is now part of On Location, a larger sports and entertainment travel company, but operates as a distinct division serving the college sports segment.

The company's market is specific: college athletics departments manage the travel of student-athletes, coaching staffs, and sometimes fans across an unpredictable schedule of games and tournaments. A football program might play 12 or 14 home games but travel to 4 or 5 away games spread across the country, all with different logistical demands. Coaches need reliable partners who can quickly book flights and hotels, adjust itineraries when rainouts or schedule changes occur, and handle the operational burden so coaching staff can focus on competition. This is where Anthony Travel positioned itself.

The company's service portfolio covers three core areas: group flights, hotel arrangements, and ground transportation. On the flight side, Anthony Travel uses its volume with carriers to negotiate group rates that are typically lower than what individual teams could secure. For a university athletics department traveling 100 to 150 people multiple times per year, this can represent meaningful savings. The company handles everything from fare shopping to seat assignments to handling overages when a team's roster expands mid-season.

Hotel arrangements are handled with similar attention to detail. Rather than leaving a hotel search to an overworked athletic administrator, Anthony Travel blocks inventory at properties near stadiums or within convenient distances, negotiates rates that reflect the university's repeat bookings, and coordinates room assignments to keep teams together and simplify check-in. Universities value this coordination because it keeps the team organized and reduces the noise and confusion of a large group checking into multiple properties.

Ground transportation includes bus charters and shuttle coordination. After a flight arrives, the team needs to get from the airport to the hotel and then to the stadium or practice facility. Anthony Travel arranges this logistics, often using established relationships with local transportation providers at recurring destinations. This kind of detail management is invisible when it works and catastrophic when it fails, so universities seek partners who have built deep local relationships.

A key differentiator is Anthony Travel's ability to handle disruptions. Youth sports and college athletics are subject to weather delays, rainouts, and schedule changes that commercial travel booking systems are not designed for. A team's entire travel plan can need to be remade in 48 hours due to a rescheduled game or a weather postponement. Anthony Travel's human team can navigate these crises, rebooking flights and hotels and communicating with all parties involved. For a university, this responsiveness is worth a premium because the alternative is coaching staff managing logistics instead of focusing on the team.

Anthony Travel also manages seasonal budgeting. Universities plan athletics budgets annually, and travel is a significant line item. The company can forecast travel costs across the season, helping athletic directors allocate funds and avoid budget surprises. They also provide reporting on actual travel spend versus budget, helping universities track spending and identify cost control opportunities.

International team tours represent an additional service line. Universities occasionally organize international exhibitions or training trips, which require international flight coordination, visa and passport support, and hotel bookings in unfamiliar markets. Anthony Travel can manage these complex itineraries, which most domestic travel agents cannot handle effectively. The company has organized trips to Europe, Latin America, and Asia, navigating visa requirements, currency exchanges, and international hotel contracts that are far more complex than domestic travel.

Pricing is not published on the website, which is standard in this category. Group travel pricing depends on flight routes, season, hotel availability, and the size of the group, making public rate sheets impractical. Interested universities or athletic programs can contact Anthony Travel's collegiate sales team at 574-344-2127 (Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM Eastern Time). The team can discuss the program's specific needs, model costs, and negotiate annual rates or event-by-event quotes. The direct phone line reflects the company's service model: relationship-driven rather than transactional, with dedicated account managers for university clients.

One advantage of Anthony Travel's establishment is the institutional knowledge that exists within the company. Travel planners at Anthony Travel have managed hundreds of college sports seasons, so they understand the specific constraints of college athletics: the unpredictability of rainouts, the pressure to accommodate walk-ons and roster changes, the seasonal nature of some sports (football in the fall, basketball in the winter), and the budget cycles that dictate when universities can book travel. A newer competitor would need years to build that institutional knowledge.

A consideration for smaller universities or athletic programs is the potential for higher costs compared to negotiating independently. Anthony Travel's margins come from the spread between negotiated rates and what they charge universities. For large programs with significant travel volume (like Penn State or Alabama), this spread is more than offset by the savings Anthony Travel's volume negotiating power generates. Smaller programs might find the difference less favorable, though the operational overhead they avoid is still valuable. A small Division II program that travels 2–3 times per year might not benefit as much as a major Power Five program that travels 5–6 times per year.

The competitive landscape includes other sports travel specialists (Cvent, TeamTravel Source, others), but Anthony Travel's deep history with college athletics and the breadth of university partnerships create a defensible position. College athletic directors typically stay with established travel partners to maintain consistency in budgeting and logistics, reducing churn. Anthony Travel has built that moat through decades of reliable service, repeat business, and institutional relationships.

Anthony Travel is the clear choice for college athletics departments seeking a full-service travel partner. The company's track record with 90+ universities, their experience managing the unpredictable schedule changes inherent in college sports, and their integrated offerings across flights, hotels, and ground transportation make them the most established player in this specific niche. If you manage athletics travel at a college or university, Anthony Travel should be your first call. The company's size and reputation mean they can handle any size program and any complexity of itinerary.