The purpose of this study was to determine the economic benefits of hosting a statewide athletic event on a small-sized community. The current study sought to estimate the economic impact of the annual Sunshine State Games (SSG) on the local community of Lakeland, Florida. Funded by the Florida Sports Foundation, the SSG is a weeklong Olympic-style sports festival that provides amateur competition to thousands of athletes of all ages and skill levels. Although economic impact analyses are typically conducted to justify a particular stance on a proposition (Hunter, 1988), its primary purpose is to measure the economic benefits to the host community (Crompton, 1995). In the context of sport, economic impact is evaluated by determining the net economic change within a host community resulting from spending ascribed to a sport event (Turco & Kelsey, 1992; Crompton, 1995).
Method
Data were collected from SSG attendees (N=273) at differing athletic competition locations. Students from a university sport management program were recruited and trained for the purpose of survey distribution and collection. Derived from previous studies on the measurement of economic impact analysis (Crompton & McKay, 1994), a survey was developed to gather information on the financial expenditures of outside attendees of the event.
Analysis/Results
The National Association of Sports Commission (NASC) formula was utilized to determine the economic impact of the event on the Lakeland community. This formula is represented as TEI = RM [TAS + (OTV x ASD x ND] in which the Total Economic Impact (TEI) equals the Regional Multiplier (RM) multiplied by the sum of the Total Administrative Spending (TAS) plus the sum of the Out of Town Visitors (OTV) multiplied by the Average Spent per Day (ASD) by the visitors multiplied by the Number of Days (ND) the visitors spent in the city. The results of the study revealed that the new money brought in by the event totaled more than $1 million for the local economy.
Conclusions
By increasing the expenditure of new money in the local community, the economic benefit of the SSG annual event is serving a greater good by increasing government tax revenue and increasing income of local businesses. The new money generated from hosting major sporting events such as the SSG could potentially result in more jobs and higher personal income for the residents of the local economy. Further implications of the study will be discussed in greater detail.