EventConnect announced findings showing the significant economic impact felt by cities from the loss of youth and amateur sports tournaments a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The findings from EventConnect’s internal database of over 4,000 events, 400 associations, 15,000 hotels, and 800 cities revealed that the cancellation of just one tournament costs a city an average of $360,000.
However, the cancellation of a big tournament can result in a city losing as much as $5,074,185 in a single weekend. The US cities that have so far been hit the hardest in 2020 due to the pandemic’s cancellations are Mauston, Wisconsin; Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin; Georgetown, Delaware; Boston, Massachusetts; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Buffalo, New York.
However, as restrictions on tournaments vary between the states, those states expecting to see the largest number of tournaments return between November 2020 and the end of March 2021 are:
- Texas (54 tournaments)
- Wisconsin (22 tournaments)
- Florida (21 tournaments)
- West Virginia (13 tournaments)
- Maryland (9 tournaments)
- Indiana (7 tournaments)
- Mississippi (7 tournaments)
Some tournaments are choosing to relocate to other states to enable travel teams to compete still. For example, in Boston, Massachusetts, some events are being moved to Connecticut and New Hampshire, causing potential Boston hotel revenue losses of over $574,848. The data also shows that most of the teams are currently traveling to tournaments from New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Chicago, IL; Miami, FL; Las Vegas, NV; and San Diego, CA.
Due to tighter restrictions on indoor tournaments, when it comes to travel tournament cancellations, some sports like hockey have been hit harder than others that are commonly played outdoors, such as soccer and baseball. EventConnect’s data shows that while there were 140 hockey tournaments initially scheduled for 2020, only 10 of them could be played.
“This year has been filled with uncertainty in the youth and amateur sports industry, but it is encouraging to see that sporting events are starting to kick off again, especially around the South and East Coast. I hope they will soon pick up again on the West Coast as well in a manner that ensures everyone’s health and safety,” said John D’Orsay, CEO at EventConnect. “In areas where youth and amateur sports have not yet come back, there is an opportunity for tournament rights holders to use this time to review their workflow and the technology that they use to manage events. Our highly customizable solution gives tournament organizers more time to market and produces events with a lower headcount, ultimately resulting in increased revenue.”
About the data
The report’s findings were compiled from an internal database of over 4,000 events, 400 associations, 15,000 hotels, and 800 cities. The loss of city revenue was calculated using EventConnect’s data on the average cost of a hotel room for a team at a travel tournament and the assumption that a family spends $115 per day traveling on food, drinks, transportation and entertainment.
