Sports Tourism Grows local Economies

Calculating the Economic Power of Sports Tourism: A Case Study of Growth Through Sports

Indianapolis is a sports town, and growing up here, I was raised attending Indy 500 time trials and cheering on the Colts and Pacers, encouraged by my parents to memorize the player rosters. Not only is my hometown the so-called 'Racing Capital of the World, ' host city of the world’s largest single-day sporting event - the Indy 500, and the location of the NCAA headquarters, but it has hosted over 400 national and international sporting events over the past 30 years. From Olympic trials to world championships, the city’s history of prestigious events culminated with Super Bowl XLVI in February 2012 that generated $175.9 million in direct visitor spending. (More on that later).

Something I was unaware of until 2011 when I accepted a position with Visit Indy, the official sales and marketing organization for Indianapolis charged with driving tourism through meetings, events and leisure travel, was that Indy’s sports initiative that ultimately led to hosting the Super Bowl began four decades ago, thanks to a group of civic leaders with a great vision. In the 1970s, former Senator and then Mayor Richard Lugar pulled together a group of city visionaries to develop a strategy to use sports as an economic driver to develop Indianapolis. At that time, the city only woke up one day a year to host the Indy 500; otherwise, it was a sleepy town with little tourism.

Laying the Groundwork for Change
The plan that would change that had three major components: build sports facilities and hotels downtown as opposed to in the suburbs, host sporting events to bring visitors to the city, and attract governing bodies to relocate their headquarters to Indy. We will first describe how the three-part initiative unfolded, and then explain the ways we calculated its success.

Building for the Future
In 1974, Market Square Arena was built in the heart of downtown for the Indiana Pacers. Then in 1984, without even having a professional NFL team, Indy built the Hoosier Dome, also in the heart of the city, and attracted the Colts from Baltimore in a still infamous overnight move.