What’s a touchdown or a home run or a foul shot worth?
If you ask coaches or players, they can easily come up with a number.
If you ask the people who bring sports events to Jacksonville, the answer might not come so easily.
That’s why the Jacksonville Sports Council is commissioning a study to determine the financial impact that sports has on the local tourism economy.
“Our goal is to bring sports events to the city that create economic impact,” said Jacksonville Sports Council Executive Director Alan Verlander.
Having complete data on the impact of annual events, such as the TaxSlayer Bowl and the Florida-Georgia game, and an evaluation of the economic value of the Jacksonville Jaguars and other professional sports franchises would help market the city as a sports destination, he said.
Verlander said having solid data will make events easier to sell to sponsors and could increase membership to the sports council, a privately funded organization.
Having credible data also can be an asset when educating elected officials and other stakeholders about the value of sports to the local economy, he said.
“Our job is to bring in more bed tax and sales tax,” he said.
Research firms are being evaluated and the study should be complete within a few months, Verlander said.
Knowing what portion sports represents in the estimated $1.5 billion that visitors to Jacksonville spend each year is not presently known.
Tracking visitor spending associated with football, baseball, basketball and other professional, collegiate, high school and amateur sporting events isn’t as easy as tracking conventions, said Katie Mitura, Visit Jacksonville’s director of marketing and product development.
With conventions and business meetings, groups usually book blocks of rooms through a meeting planner, making it simple to count heads in beds.
Sports events usually have a host hotel for players, coaches and staff, but fans often make their own hotel choices based on price, availability or other factors such as proximity to the beach or local tourist attractions.
Mitura said one of the biggest challenges when tracking the economic impact of sports is many of the visitors don’t reserve their accommodations ahead of time at one or just a few hotel properties.
Adding to the challenge, of the 160 hotels and motels in Duval County, 85 percent are limited-service, meaning they don’t have convention and meeting facilities or staff on-site who can help track room nights.
That can make it difficult to obtain accurate visitor numbers and spending statistics.
The best data available in those cases is the weekly Smith Travel Accommodations Report, which evaluates hotel property performance based on occupancy percentage and average room rate data provided by hotels that subscribe to the service.
Visit Jacksonville receives weekly updates from the report and uses the data to track tourism trends.
Using room night data, Mitura said, it can be determined that an event had a degree of impact, but it’s “an educated guess” to quantify a specific event’s economic contribution without a dedicated study.
For example, the city estimated a total economic impact of more than $33 million from the 2014 Florida-Georgia football game, based on $3.5 million in revenue from about 37,000 room nights.
This year’s Jan. 2 TaxSlayer Bowl, featuring the University of Iowa vs. the University of Tennessee, accounted for about $20 million in direct economic impact, based on tickets sold and room nights reserved in area hotels.
To take a closer look at economic impacts, Visit Jacksonville last year commissioned the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Laboratory to conduct comprehensive attendee surveys at several events.
During the inaugural Florida Country Superfest at EverBank Field, 412 ticket-holders were interviewed.
They provided data about topics including where they lived, where they stayed while in Jacksonville and how much money they spent in connection with their visit.
The study determined that of the 43,000 people who attended the two-day festival, 64 percent did not live in Jacksonville. On average, visitors stayed for 2.4 days and spent $241 per day, for a direct economic impact of $23.2 million.
Other studies conducted last year by UNF showed $10.3 million visitor in spending impact from Welcome to Rockville, $2.9 million from 26.2 with Donna, $2.8 million from the Jacksonville Jazz Festival and $1.8 million from One Spark.
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