World Series, Other Sports Events: Estimated $100M Economic Impact
By SANDI CAIN
From the World Series to the U.S. Open surfing finals, sporting events have spurred an estimated $100 million in economic impact for Orange County in the past year.
That’s been good for the county’s hotels, restaurants and other businesses catering to visitors, which have been slow to shake off the effects of terrorism, war and the sluggish economy.
“Having the Stanley Cup eight months after the World Series was fortunate for us,” said John Nicoletti, a spokesman for the city of Anaheim.
While the Anaheim Angels won’t be repeating last year’s dramatic World Series win, there’s still hope for the National Hockey League’s Might Ducks of Anaheim, which lost to the New Jersey Devils earlier this year in the Stanley Cup Finals.
The typical economic impact for a major sporting event is $32 million, according to the Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission.
The recently completed World Gymnastics competition,which drew 85,000 fans and more than 600 gymnasts from 70 countries to Anaheim,was projected to generate $30 million for the area.
And the recent U.S. Open surfing finals drew about 90,000 people to Huntington Beach for the final day alone, followed by another 10,000 for the East/West X Games.
Hosting sporting events isn’t all gravy. It comes with a cost to host cities.
Anaheim officials declined to provide a cost figure for the World Series and Stanley Cup. Most of the city’s extra spending came in the way of added policing and extra street cleaning, Nicoletti said. The city hadn’t budgeted for any of that, he said.
Last year’s Anaheim Angels World Series appearance was “unexpected,” said Sgt. Rick Martinez, an Anaheim Police Department spokesman.
“As soon as we knew it was going to happen we sent people to Phoenix (home of the 2001 champion Arizona Diamondbacks) and New York (host for the 2000 Series won by the New York Yankees) to find out how they handled the event,” he said.
For Anaheim, the World Series presented special challenges because the police department,at about 350 strong,is one of the smaller ones among Major League Baseball cities.
“It means internal resources become strained,” Martinez said. “That’s especially true in dealing with a higher volume of traffic and a concentration of high-profile people coming to town. All eyes were on Anaheim.”
The Stanley Cup final at the Arrowhead Pond was smaller by comparison but also stretched resources, according to Martinez.
“We had to secure the building long before the event started,” he said.
Events with a longer planning curve have security budgets attached,often as part of the contract that brings the event to the city.
“We have the opportunity to be more proactive (in preparation) with longer lead times,” Nicoletti said.
For the World Gymnastics event, an Anaheim Police officer worked on plans part-time for more than a year, Martinez said.
Final costs for the event have not yet been determined, but security was included in the contract for the event.
At the Pond, general manager Tim Ryan said he had a staff working with the gymnastics officials, the city and the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau for more than 18 months in advance.
“Hosting an international event of this magnitude brings its own challenges, including the need for language specialists, medial staff and pre-event training facilities,” Ryan said.
Martinez said Anaheim Police’s biggest concern was the global nature of the event and the political issues that might arise from that. No political incidents arose, but the department had to consider every possible scenario, he said.
“Sometimes we think we overprepare,” he said.
The city already is preparing for the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials next year and the Badminton World Championship in 2005,both slated for the Pond.
