Laserfiche WebLink
<br />SUMMARY OF RESEARCH AND RECOMMENDED STRATEGIES <br />EDA STRATEGIC PLAN 30 <br />13. SPORTS, MOUNTAIN BIKING AND ERX TOURISM <br />Elk River’s EDA and economic development staff is well aware that the attractiveness of <br />City amenities draws visitors from well beyond its borders. The question it has asked as <br />part of this study is: <br />• Can the attractiveness of its sports facilities and parks and ERX events be further <br />leveraged to create an expanded economic impact from tourism to Elk River? <br />Because these three amenities attract a different visitor pool, and operate in different <br />competitive contexts, an individual analysis is required for each in order to fully answer the <br />research question. While it wasn’t possible to give full consideration to all three of these <br />opportunities, we did dedicate time to sports tourism research, and that included <br />connecting with one of the premier sports tourism experts in Minnesota. This research also <br />provides perspectives that are relevant to the other two tourism focus areas. <br />Sports tourism. The quality and number of sports venues in Elk River is enjoyed locally <br />and could plausibly be leveraged to attract additional sports events and foster sports <br />tourism. Topical research on sports tourism yielded the following information, summarized <br />from Sports Tourism: State of the Industry Report. <br />• Nearly 180 million people traveled to a sports event in <br />the U.S. in 2019 either as a participant or spectator, which <br />generated 69 million room nights. <br />• Sports travelers, event organizers, and venues spent <br />$45.1 billion in 2019, which generated $103.3 billion in <br />business sales when including indirect and induced <br />impacts. <br />• A total of 739,386 jobs were sustained by sports <br />tourism in 2019. This included 410,762 direct and 328,624 <br />indirect and induced jobs. <br />• Sports tourism generated $14.6 billion in tax revenues <br />in 2019, with $6.8 billion accruing to state and local <br />governments. <br />• An estimated 54% of all sports travelers spent the night in the event destination, which <br />generated 69 million room nights in 2019. <br />When Elk River sports venues are mapped out and compared to neighboring cities, it can <br />be observed that Elk River offers more high quality baseball diamonds, softball diamonds <br />and ice sheets than any other cities between the Twin Cities Metro and St. Cloud. A <br />challenge the city faces, however, is that the City is not far enough away from the Twin <br />Cities Metro and St. Cloud that sports participants and spectators from those cities are <br />likely to want to spend the night in Elk River. They may purchase gas in Elk River or go out <br />during or after the event to a bar or restaurant, but the economic impact of those purchases <br />are limited when they don’t involve an overnight stay.