WILMINGTON — A growing interest in sports tourism across Delaware has proven fruitful, accounting for $258 million in economic impact and an influx of 1.1 million sports enthusiasts traveling into the state, according to a new study commissioned by the Delaware Tourism Office.
The study was the first of its kind for the sports tourism industry by the state’s Tourism Office, a division of the Delaware Division of Small Business. In the past, state tourism officials had contracted out studies of the tourism industry as a whole. This study, by research organization Tourism Economics, narrowed the scope to sports tourism.
Tourism Economics looked at a variety of factors including direct and indirect spending patterns of those who participated in or watched the First State’s sports tourism industry unfold whether on the field or in the seats in 2023.
The results of the study shine a light on hundreds of millions of dollars of economic impact in the First State, as well as thousands of jobs. In total, the study showcased more than 3,000 part-time and full-time jobs in 2023 alone through the sports industry, as well as the generation of $20.2 million in state and local taxes and $403.2 million in total business sales in the local economy.
To come up with those figures, Tourism Economics analyzed data from both local and other sources, along with a combination of “an understanding of traveler dynamics with rigorous economics” and spending and operation trends to include costs related to wages, tournament operations, insurance, equipment, taxes and more, according to the reveal presentation on Friday morning. The figures presented reflected events from amateur youth and adult programming, as well as collegiate sports.
While the results were a little higher than the initial expectations of Delaware Tourism Office Director Jessica Welch, she wasn’t entirely surprised in its success as she has watched the growth of the industry through the office’s yearly impact report over the years.
Her office has also facilitated two new programs directed at the sports tourism industry to help spur more growth than what was seen in the study results. The Sports Tourism Capital Investment Fund announced $11.3 million in awarded funds earlier this year, supporting four facilities and will award another $10 million in the next round which is currently under review.
In July, her office also created the Tournaments, Events and Athletic Meets Sponsorship (TEAMS) Program which provides grants to event organizers in hopes of attracting new events to the area while keeping currently running events here in the First State. So far, she said more than $350,000 has been requested through the TEAMS Program.
Welch doesn’t think the new study will be used to help identify awardees for either of those programs, but she said it will be used in other ways.
“I think we will probably use this possibly to go to legislators and ask for additional funding if it ever becomes available. I think this is a tool we can have in our toolbox to say sports tourism is bringing in a lot of money into this state. We’re investing into these facilities, if we invest even more money here, what could be possible,” she told the Delaware Business Times.
The results of the survey were announced from inside BPG Sports’ Chase Fieldhouse in Wilmington, a popular 2,500-seat arena and sports complex which opened in 2019 and was previously granted $6 million in funding from the Sports Tourism Capital Investment Fund’s first round to build its indoor track facility.
Rob Buccini, co-founder of the Buccini/Pollin Group which manages BPG Sports, was on hand during the reveal and said the chance to be at the helm of Delaware’s new sports tourism industry through the Chase Fieldhouse was an “unbelievable opportunity” which turned out to be his “favorite project of [his] career.”
With a “remarkable” location and a propensity to never turn away a future athlete regardless of their ability to pay for services thanks to financial support from JPMorgan Chase, seeing as many as two million youth walk through the doors of the Chase Fieldhouse in the past 12 months, Buccini and his team are in a prime position to see just how impactful the industry can be to the local economy.
“We get the destination traveler that fills up the hotels, that eats in the restaurants,” he said, adding that the facility is also walkable to many of those locations or accessible by bus.
Deputy Secretary of State Kristopher Knight said all of those amenities across the state work together to keep “us competitive in this eastern corridor.”
Knight said he notices the economic impacts of filled parking lots and busy tournaments often while traveling through the state, a sight he called important, but added that leaders needed something more to prove its worth in Delaware – an economic study which could help encourage the growth of infrastructure to support the evolving industry.
“To drive by and see. . . full parking lots and tournaments, we can see that. But we need something more finite,” he said. “Trust but verify. [We needed] something like this impact study that shows us: here is the impact and here is the way that we want to grow.”
