Cities get into the game - cities attracting sport activities for economic purpose

Nation's Business, Nov, 1989 by Glen Macnow

Cities Get Into The Game

It was author Kurt Vonnegut--a native son--who dubbed Indianapolis "Naptown." Indeed, a national survey in the 1970s found that the Hoosier state capital didn't exactly have a bad national image; rather, it had no image at all.

But that was 10 years ago. These days, Indianapolis is nationally known as "Sportstown, U.S.A." Since 1979, when city officials and business leaders began a concerted effort to capitalize on America's infatuation with sports, Indianapolis has hosted more than 200 events, from the Pan American Games to the NBA All-Star Game. The contests have generated an estimated $300 million in direct funds, perhaps double that figure in spinoff revenues, and an incalculable amount in media exposure.

Indianapolis is now home to six national sports-governing bodies. Its $130 million worth of gleaming new facilities--from the 60,000-seat Hoosier Dome to the Major Taylor Velodrome for bicycle races--are among the best in the country. The city has already been chosen to host the 1991 NCAA Final Four basketball championships and the 1991 Professional Golfers Association Championships.

"Sports has created a renaissance in this city," says Susan Conner, spokeswoman for the Lilly Endowment, a private foundation that has bankrolled much of Indianapolis' redevelopment. "There is an esprit de corps that didn't exist a decade ago."

The city's success story stems from a partnership of civic and business leaders who moved in 1979 to form the Indiana Sports Corp., a nonprofit organization created to bring amateur sports events to Indianapolis.

The Sports Corp., which started with one full-time employee and now has 25, was the first in the nation designed to identify, bid for, and host sporting events systematically. It did not remain alone for long. The Indianapolis model has spurred dozens of American cities, large and small, to join in the competition to lure sports dollars to their communities. About $50 billion was spent on all aspects of sports in the U.S. in 1987, and the figure is rising.

Today there are more than 30 commissions--many of them offshoots of their cities' chambers of commerce or tourism divisions--slugging it out for sports events. A few groups are charged solely with seeking major-league franchises or new stadiums, but most are closely copying Indianapolis' methods.

"It's amazing how much competition there is for some of these events now," says David W. Brenner, a former Philadelphia commerce director and now president of the city's Sports Congress. "And it's not just the big ones like World Cup soccer. We bid for [and later got] the 1990 NCAA men's volleyball championships. Ten years ago, maybe one or two cities would have sought that event. This year, there were many, and each city was making a better offer than the last."

Competition for sporting events of all sizes has increased, and no one wants to be left out. Cities with fewer than a half-million people have formed sports commissions, which now bravely march into sports boardrooms seeking to compete against Los Angeles and New York. Florida has no fewer than seven separate sports authorities, which often end up banging heads in trying for the same events. Indeed, a Florida state advisory council was formed last year to try to keep representatives of the various sports groups from disparaging one another.

But why sports? Why are cities vying for events such as the national women's softball finals when there are major industries to compete for?

The answer lies in both economics and image. Sporting events are now regarded much like conventions--they attract affluent tourists who stay in hotels, eat in restaurants, ride in taxis. An economic-impact study in Utah in 1985 concluded that "sporting events have the potential of producing significant revenue for the state."

The economic impact of hosting a Super Bowl is considered to be at least $125 million. An NCAA Final Four is worth $40 million. But even a regional body-building competition flexes some financial muscle.

"We figure that if we can land just 5 percent of the amateur events in the country, we'll get an economic boost of $30 million to $50 million annually," says Mike Millay, executive director of the New Orleans Sports Foundation. Millay's group recently wooed 1990 stops for the U.S. Tennis Association tour, the Miller Lite Pro Beach Volleyball tour, the International Body Building championships, and the Women's National Rugby Championships. "Individually, those small events may not sound like much," he says, "but when you add them up, they really help the city economically."

Beyond that, sports may be the ultimate in light, clean industry. And they can bring more positive exposure to a city in one weekend than a manufacturing plant might in a hundred years. When Buffalo was named last December as U.S. host city for the 1993 World University Games, Mayor Jimmy Griffin predicted: "This ought to bring us more good publicity than anything that has come to Buffalo since the [1901] Pan-American Exposition."