Report on the impact of sports and tourism in the state

A new report from the non-partisan Common Sense Institute found that the total impact of the state’s sports and tourism sector is significant – and that includes more than just the Super Bowl. Arizona’s sports and tourism sector creates a total of $24.1 billion in Gross Domestic Product per year and hundreds of thousands of jobs, according to the report. Katie Ratlief, CSI Arizona Executive Director and Glenn Farley, Director of Policy and Research, joined Ted to talk about what this means for the state.

“We have a very strong hospitality industry here, a lot of great entertainment venues, we have 15 professional sports teams,” said Ratleif. “We found that it’s about a 24 billion dollar impact every year on the state’s economy, that’s about six percent of our economy.”

The sports and tourism sector includes a wide range of goods and services. In addition to tickets and hotel revenue, the sector also includes travel agencies prices and elements of restaurants and bars, as noted by Farley.

“It’s a mix of various, what they call ‘industries’ that we think, in our report, you can define to be the sports and tourism sector,” said Farley.

Common Sense Institute predicts that the sports and tourism sector will continue to grow in Arizona, according to Ratlief.

“We have several great events every year, we have the Waste Management Phoenix open, we host spring training every year, so we’re already known as an amazing destination for events like the Super Bowl,” said Ratleif.

According to Ratleif, this revenue increase is a self-fulfilling cycle. Arizona’s sporting events attract large events, like the Super Bowl. These large events bring a lot of tourism to the state. This, in turn, makes Arizona more attractive to other large events and brings in even more revenue.