Premium ContentClick on Premium Content on the Featured navigation bar for information.
Omaha may not see another sports year like 2008.
Three championship events rarely held in a single city injected nearly 30 million out-of-town dollars into the city's economy, according to a new estimate.
Combined with the College World Series' estimated $40 million annual economic impact, along with normal spending by visitors to the Omaha Royals, state track meet, Creighton basketball, college and pro hockey teams and other draws, 2008 was record sports year for the city, dollar-wise.
The convergence of the 2008 Olympic Swim Trials, an NCAA early-round men's basketball tournament and the NCAA women's volleyball Final Four pumped up the city almost as much as the athletes, said economists Ernie Goss and Eric Thompson.
“It just happened that in 2008 they all fell into one year. But we will go after volleyball again. When the time comes we'll go after basketball again,” said Dana Markel, executive director of the Omaha Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“By hosting these events, we are building a very strong reputation as a premier sports host city.”
The study's cost, $13,500, was shared by the bureau, Omaha Sports Commission and Metropolitan Entertainment & Convention Authority.
Goss said 2008 marked Omaha as one of the amateur-sports capitals of the country. “If you get the Olympics one year and something else the next year, it just builds on the infrastructure. It was a remarkable year.”
Goss, from Creighton University, and Thompson, from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said it's good news that the Olympic Swim Trials will return in 2012. And next year the nation's top collegiate wrestlers will compete for national titles in Omaha.
Markel said attracting such events is increasingly competitive. Some states pay tax incentives for championship events, Markel said, while Omaha focuses on meeting the needs of the sponsoring sports groups.
“Based on the feedback we got from the NCAA from the way basketball was conducted at the Qwest Center, they want to come back,” said Harley Schrager, chairman of the sports commission.
“Building on that kind of momentum, there are possibilities going forward that we can at least approach that kind of impact again,” he said. “But our best bet for another 2008 is 2012, just because we're not going to get a Swim Trials every year.”
From an economic point of view, Goss said, spending by out-of-town visitors is more important because local people would spend at least a portion of the same money in Omaha even if they don't attend any events.
Aside from the College World Series, the swim trials had the biggest economic impact, accounting for $22.7 million in spending by out-of-towners last year.
Just ask John Wade, operating partner of the Twisted Fork restaurant at 1014 Howard St., down 10th Street from the Qwest Center.
“We were just jam-packed,” he said.
Business during the eight-day swim meet was double the volume during the College World Series, partly because of the event schedule, he said. Swim sessions ended about 2 p.m. and 9 p.m., so swim fans would look for food just as the normal lunch and dinner crowds departed.
“All of a sudden we would completely fill up again for another couple hours,” Wade said.
And because the event was new, local people didn't stay away for fear of traffic or crowds as they sometimes do during the College World Series.
“Anything that Omaha can do to bring more events like this in would absolutely impact the businesses long-run,” he said.
Thompson, the UNL economist, said a banner week for a restaurant is like a bin-busting crop year for a farmer. The money allows business owners to pay down debt, upgrade equipment, think about expanding and even save some, he said.
“Having national events raises the quality of life,” Thompson said. “It's prestigious, and it's hard to put a dollar value on that.”
The new study is based in part on surveys of those attending the swim trials and on license plate counts in parking lots during the NCAA events, Goss said.
“The Olympic trials were just off the charts in terms of people from the outside,” Goss said, taking six of every 10 of the 160,000 tickets. “The money is a big part of it, but the long-term implications for economic development are significant.”
Hosting top sports events helps the city attract and keep people, he said.
“Younger people are more mobile, and that's what you mean when you're talking about the brain drain or the brain gain,” Goss aid. “It's clear that people do wish to live in areas that have Broadway shows that visit or, in this case, the Olympic trials coming here.”
Among Omaha's prospects for future championships:
— Men's basketball. Creighton and MECA are bidding for early-round games and regional finals for 2011, 2012 and 2013.
— Volleyball. Possible in 2013.
— Hockey. Omaha hopes to bid for 2012 and 2013.
— Wrestling. Omaha will be host for the national Division I tournament March 18-20; UNO will hold the Division II tournament March 12-13.
— Others. 2011 McDonald's All-American high school basketball games; 2012 Olympic fencing; World Police and Fireman Games.
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
