EDA Special Meeting Packet 11-09-2020

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SUMMARY OF RESEARCH AND RECOMMENDED STRATEGIES EDA STRATEGIC PLAN 45 13. SPORTS, MOUNTAIN BIKING AND ERX TOURISM Elk River’s EDA and economic development staff is well aware that the attractiveness of City amenities draws visitors from well beyond its borders. The question it has asked as part of this study is: • Can the attractiveness of its sports facilities and parks and ERX events be further leveraged to create an expanded economic impact from tourism to Elk River? Because these three amenities attract a different visitor pool, and operate in different competitive contexts, an individual analysis is required for each in order to fully answer the research question. While it wasn’t possible to give full consideration to all three of these opportunities, we did dedicate time to sports tourism research, and that included connecting with one of the premier sports tourism experts in Minnesota. This research also provides perspectives that are relevant to the other two tourism focus areas. Sports tourism. The quality and number of sports venues in Elk River is enjoyed locally and could plausibly be leveraged to attract additional sports events and foster sports tourism. Topical research on sports tourism yielded the following information, summarized from Sports Tourism: State of the Industry Report. • Nearly 180 million people traveled to a sports event in the U.S. in 2019 either as a participant or spectator, which generated 69 million room nights. • Sports travelers, event organizers, and venues spent $45.1 billion in 2019, which generated $103.3 billion in business sales when including indirect and induced impacts. • A total of 739,386 jobs were sustained by sports tourism in 2019. This included 410,762 direct and 328,624 indirect and induced jobs. • Sports tourism generated $14.6 billion in tax revenues in 2019, with $6.8 billion accruing to state and local governments. • An estimated 54% of all sports travelers spent the night in the event destination, which generated 69 million room nights in 2019. When Elk River sports venues are mapped out and compared to neighboring cities, it can be observed that Elk River offers more high quality baseball diamonds, softball diamonds and ice sheets than any other cities between the Twin Cities Metro and St. Cloud. A challenge the city faces, however, is that the City is not far enough away from the Twin Cities Metro and St. Cloud that sports participants and spectators from those cities are likely to want to spend the night in Elk River. They may purchase gas in Elk River or go out during or after the event to a bar or restaurant, but the economic impact of those purchases are limited when they don’t involve an overnight stay.