The Economic Impact of Last Year’s
WIAA State Track and Field Championships
By: Justin Krause
ON YOUR MARKS...SET...BANG!!!! Just like that, the 2019 track and field season has started for the state of Wisconsin. Track season started up on March 4th of this year but that’s not the point of this post, let’s take a trip back to last year’s State meet and look at the economic impact that it brought in for not only the La Crosse area but the whole state of Wisconsin.
Over this two day event according to WIZM News, “nearly 20,000 passed through the gates to cheer on the best athletes in the state, including 8,918 for Saturday’s finals”. Which is absurd, think about this the supply of tickets for the stadium is limited. Especially from what I saw there were hundreds and maybe even thousands that just had to stand because there were no spots to sit. But the demand for these tickets to get into the stadium is an all-time high, lines were formed by parents, family, and friends to secure their spot for the meet. The average ticket price was around $10, so by taking the price and multiplying it by the number of people who attended the meet made $200,000 just solely off tickets!
Then take into account the athletes up there, now athletes stay in UW-La Crosse’s dorms however parents of athletes have to stay overnight especially if their son or daughter is in multiple events. Also, the athletes have to eat, aggregate demand is extremely high and shifts to the right from what it originally is. Which means that the price level of food and drinks from restaurants will increase. Along with the increase in price level, there’ll also be an increase in the real GDP of the surrounding La Crosse area. Not a huge shift for the entire economy by any means solely just from the food and drinks from restaurants.
The last main reason that there is such a huge economic impact is merchandise/apparel. This is the biggest hit of them all, yeah you can watch the meet and say you were there. But how do you show that? Through extremely overpriced apparel and merchandise. And I mean I say all this about it being overpriced but I want it, I need it. Through merchandise, athletes wanting to show off to their peers that they participate in the state track and field meet can do that. There aren’t exact numbers however I saw first hand how fast apparel was flying off the shelves. If you like something and didn’t buy it when you were there, you weren’t getting that item. The demand for apparel and merchandise skyrocketed especially for the niche target market of the state track and field apparel. Supply was limited, which made apparel such a hot commodity.
Works Cited
Fremstad, Jordan. “Explore La Crosse Estimates More than $3 Million Economic Impact from WIAA State Track & Field.” WKBT, Morgan Murphy Media, 2 June 2018, www.news8000.com/news/explore-la-crosse-estimates-more-than-3-million-from-wiaa-state-track-field/748550511.Krakow, Kari. “2018 All State Team Announced.” Wisconsin Track Coaches Association, 18 Nov. 2016, www.wistca.org/news_article/show/444850.
Lang, Kjerstin. “State Track Meet Makes a Nearly $4 Million Economic Impact.” UW, Campus News – UW-La Crosse, 3 June 2014, news.uwlax.edu/state-track-meet-makes-a-nearly-4-million-economic-impact/.
Solem, Rick. “LOCAL RESULTS: Nearly 20,000 Attend WIAA State Track and Field Meet in La Crosse.” WKTY Sports, WKTY, 2019, wktysports.com/2018/06/04/local-results-nearly-20000-attend-wiaa-state-track-and-field-meet-in-la-crosse/.
Stewart, Mark, and Curt Hogg. “WIAA State Meet Report: Athletes of the Day, Record-Setting Performances.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee, 3 June 2018, www.jsonline.com/story/sports/high-schools/2018/06/02/wiaa-state-track-and-field-report-athletes-day-records/652963002/.
“Tickets.” State Tournament Tickets | Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association, www.wiaawi.org/Tickets.
“Winter Team Sportsmanship Awards Selected.” Home | Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association, www.wiaawi.org/.
Great blog Justin! I can totally see the economic impact there. Another thing to take into account is the great advertising that UWL gets to take advantage of by having so many people on campus for these events as well. A good thing to note too is that while yes the impact on US real GDP is pretty small, it really does make an impact on the area with the drastic increase in consumer spending that goes on over that weekend. Also, one could say that for those who go to state track and field - they buy overpriced merchandise because their demands for it are relatively inelastic, less sensitive to a change in price, and therefore buy it because they have other reasons to buy it other than just the price.
ReplyDeleteSometimes we think only large events can make an economic impact on an area, such as a festival like Summerfest or the State Fair, but this is a really great example on how smaller events can help the economy of a city. I wonder if the event would have grossed even more money if athletes stayed in hotels, instead of dorms, as the prices of staying in a hotel I assume are much larger. However, I bet it is great publicity of UWL to have future college students getting to stay on campus and get the "college experience" for a couple of days. Additionally, I wonder if restaurants and attractions in the area increase their prices because they know the meet is going on? Like you said, many are coming in from out of town and need things to do, making the demand for things to do very inelastic for that weekend.
ReplyDelete