With the World Series coming to town for a second year in a row (talk about a competitive balance problem), there is a lot of talk about what this means for the local economy. As I have read the research that has been done, I was shocked to see that the evidence is consistent in the finding that mega-sporting events do not have a significant impact on the local economy.
I would like to think that bringing in 100,000 fans to Cowboy Stadium for the biggest American sporting event. It was estimated that these fans would inject $600 million into the Dallas-Fort Worth Economy ($200 million in direct expenditures). However, Mother Nature had other plans; during Super Bowl Week she dropped two different snow storms. Events were cancelled, flights were cancelled, hotel rooms were cancelled, and the anticipation of a large impact fell faster than when I tried to walk down my inclined driveway.
After the Super Bowl the Star Telegram ran an article about the economic impact of the Super Bowl (Article can be found here). The article reports how mayors were happy to have experienced an increase in sales tax revenues in the month of the Super Bowl. While the percentages might sound good, they actually show a very small increase in actually increases of revenues.
| Sales Tax Revenue | ||||
| Feb. 2010 | Feb. 2011 | % change | $ change | |
| Arlington | 5,550,239 | 5,800,000 | 0.045 | 249,761 |
| Fort Worth | 6,634,615 | 6,900,000 | 0.04 | 265,385 |
| Grapevine | 2,149,533 | 2,300,000 | 0.07 | 150,467 |
| Euless | 658,929 | 738,000 | 0.12 | 79,071 |
| Bedford | 627,649 | 622,000 | -0.009 | -5,649 |
While not all communities are shown, it is a far cry from the estimated $200 million in estimated direct expenditures. And while it is bigger than 0, it might not be statistically different than 0.
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