Extent of Youth Sports Economic Loss Revealed in Company Data
EventConnect reports that cities lost $360,000 on average per tournament from cancellations
Posted On: November 30, 2020 By :
EventConnect, a provider of event and sports tourism management software, has released statistics showing the extent of the loss of youth and amateur sporting events for destinations in 2020, with encouraging signs for 2021.
The finding from the company’s internal database of registration and hotel data for more than 4,000 events, 400 associations, 15,000 hotels and 800 cities concluded that the cancellation of just one tournament costs a city an average of $360,000. But the cancellation of a big tournament can result in a loss as much as $5 million in a single weekend for a destination.
In addition, the company’s analysis revealed which U.S. destinations were hit the hardest by the pandemic. According to the data of events that were booked in the company’s system, those areas included Mauston, Wisconsin; Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin; Georgetown, Delaware; Boston; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Buffalo, New York.
In encouraging news, as restrictions on tournaments vary between the states, those states expecting to see the largest number of tournaments return between before 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)
The company’s data also show that indoor sports such as hockey have suffered bigger losses than outdoor events such as soccer and baseball. Of the 140 hockey tournaments scheduled in the company’s system for 2020, only 10 were held.
“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,” said EventConnect CEO John D’Orsay. “I hope they will soon pick up again on the West Coast as well in a manner that ensures everyone’s health and safety. 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.”
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.
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