economic impact

[thunker]

We are trying to convince our rec dept to spend more $ on our fields in order for us to host a tournament every quarter. Does anyone have any estimates as to the actual economic impact a tourney has on a community?

[Fastpitch4Life]

We are trying to convince our rec dept to spend more $ on our fields in order for us to host a tournament every quarter. Does anyone have any estimates as to the actual economic impact a tourney has on a community?

Our league runs two tournaments a year. By economic impact, do you mean money spent by your league to operate the tournament supporting local businesses and money spent by teams while they are at the tournament? If so, the following are good estimates based upon our tournaments which are run out of a city park:

Assume around 50-55 teams:

Snack bar - concession costs $5000
Umpires - $6,000
Trophies - $3,000
Field Fees and electricity - $3,500
Balls - $700
Insurance - $250

Income to vendors who sell action photography, T shirts and other related items is hard to guage but we generally have 15-20 vendors at each tournament.

Hope this helps.

[3'sDad]

So the organization spends $18,500-$19,000 annually to sponsor 2 events averaging 50 teams per event, for a total of 100 teams playing for the year. At $300/team fee* 100 teams the group is earning $10,000 for the year.

Great fundraising. Lots of work and best of luck to your organization.

[twinsmom]

The other thing to consider.... This sounds like a city run field... how much income do the tournaments bring to the local economy. This is calculated by a combination of how many teams travel more than an hour for your tournament and total number of teams entered.

Hotel Rooms - 6-7 per team from out of town at $100/night.

Meals - Figure 12 kids per team plus at least one adult eating out at least once per day.

Gas for travel

This is a much more difficult issue to factor in but if you can prove that you will bring in some economic boost to the area they will be more likely to fork over the funds to fix the fields. We run into the same issue here locally. In Houston they turned over a financial plan with number of tournaments, teams, hotel room estimates, expenditures on food, gas, etc and the city redid the entire complex. They now host tournament monthly and have probably not only put more money back into the economy than was spent but it is a great fundraiser for their organizations.

[Fastpitch4Life]

So the organization spends $18,500-$19,000 annually to sponsor 2 events averaging 50 teams per event, for a total of 100 teams playing for the year. At $300/team fee* 100 teams the group is earning $10,000 for the year.

Great fundraising. Lots of work and best of luck to your organization.

A huge amount of work for a lot of people but very successful, competitive and always sold out.

[Momo's Dad]

FP4L - thanks for that.

You make money on concessions, though, right?

[Fastpitch4Life]

FP4L - thanks for that.

You make money on concessions, though, right?

Our experience is that we make about 50% - 75% profit with summer being the 75% and winter being the 50%.

[SoCalFP]

The ASA National Office has a economic impact calculating worksheet. It is very detailed, is based on the number of days of the event and includes things such as:

Estimated number of vistors (based on either youth or adult tournament and number of teams)

Number of room nights

Estimated expenditure of those attending

Estimated amount of Sales taxes collected by the local government

Estimated amount of TOT (hotel) taxes collected by the local government

I used it for an event I hosted last year and it was very useful.