This paper details the economic impact that the sports industry has on Charlotte in driving economic vitality and assets surrounding sport. While the NFL has clear and specific criteria for cities hosting the Super Bowl, a review of the impact of sport suggests that Charlotte, North Carolina continues to compete in hosting major events to be a future host.
I. Introduction
i. Overview and History of Charlotte Sport’s Industry Impact America’s premier sporting event is the Super Bowl. Charlotte, North Carolina is one of few NFL cities that has yet to host the big game. The city of Charlotte’s economy has thrived off of amateur and professional sports. Starting in the early 1980s, Charlotte, North Carolina’s economy had minimal impact from
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From there, Charlotte’s NFL team had sold out crowds within their first year of play at the downtown’s 75,525 seat stadium in 1996. Charlotte has capitalized on various sporting events, including their very own Belk Bowl. $8.4 million was spent by people attending the game in 2015. $484,000 of taxes were generated in Mecklenburg County during the week of the game. (“Why Charlotte?”). The city of Charlotte began to see their sport’s industry as a thriving industry in the city generating over two billion dollars in revenue and supporting thousands of industry jobs. In 2012, Dr. John E. Connaughton, Professor of Economics in the Belk College of Business at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte conducted detailed research and analysis highlighting the booming growth of sport tourism (Connaughton, 2012). The research presented endorses Charlotte’s ability to be considered as a future host of the Super …show more content…
In Table E.1, the city saw over 4,000,000 in attendance for either sport events or participation in amateur youth tournaments. Attendees and participants direct spending on sport events, video production, and youth tournaments was $1,094,814,607 in 2011. The cities direct revenue supported 13,834 jobs related to sport events, video production, and youth tournaments. Table E.2 displays the total spending (direct, indirect, and induced effects) on sports events, video production, and youth tournaments. In 2011, the Charlotte’s metropolitan direct impact was $2,188,207,639. In addition, this resulted in over 20,000 employment opportunities. The sports industry has had substantial impacts to Charlotte’s employment contributing over $2 billion annually into the local economy (Connaughton, 2012,