Business View Magazine | September 2022

141 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 9 SPORTS EVENTS AND TOUR I SM ASSOC I AT ION forward the fact that youth sports tournaments were bringing in $3.9 billion in tourism trade, which was ground-breaking information for Sports ETA and the industry. “That does not include the amount of development in real estate for the 16,000 sports community centers and indoor-outdoor competition sites, in virtually every city across America,” says Kidd. “That $3.9 billion does not include that portion of it, but our total study which came out at that point was $45 billion in direct spending and $103 billion of total spending. It was an eye opener for the industry.” With travel sports replacing physical fitness in schools, Kidd suggests that this is important, but not the only reason for the major investment being made in cities across the US. He offers, “Really the basis behind it was incremental tax increases. It was a revenue generator for cities, and it generated income to cities, as well as opportunities for kids.” The COVID-19 pandemic brought changes to the sports events and tourism industry, creating an imbalance between states and an increase in health and safety measures. According to Kidd, “It led rise to a brand-new industry, much like the end result of the unfortunate situation in 2000, with 9/11, that led rise to a security business around sporting activities that didn’t exist before to the level that it does now. COVID did the same thing around health – the plastics industry exploded, there were shields, there were partitions, there were sanitizers all over the place. Many states closed, totally. Some states had some level of opening, with restrictions.” Noting that states that stayed open during the pandemic had the advantage of being able to host sporting events, he adds, “In some markets during COVID they exceeded their performance in youth sports from 2019. Take Myrtle Beach, for example, they were getting all the tournaments from New York, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia that couldn’t participate and they would come down to Myrtle Beach and have their contests. Phoenix was getting a lot of California events, and they were just full, with people driving over from L.A., San Diego, Southern California primarily, and producing their events in Arizona where they had inside fields open. Texas, and Florida crushed it.” With continued research and data gathering, Sports ETA reports that by 2021 the industry was showing recovery, with 2022 looking to exceed the success of 2019. “We are the only vertical outside of leisure, which the CVBs don’t really do