On the third weekend of February, there is a distinct difference when you stroll through downtown Madison, Wisconsin. Parents with duffel bags are crammed into the Marriott hotel lobby. There is a line outside the sports bar two blocks from the Kohl Center before noon. By nine in the morning, the parking lots are packed. It’s not a college rivalry or a professional game that’s attracting all these people. High school students are participating in WIAA state competitions, and for some reason, the city is nearly full.
Rarely does this aspect of the sports economy make the front page. Researchers almost always bring up March Madness or the Olympics when discussing the financial impact of major sporting events. These are the kinds of events that come with press conferences and multimillion-dollar broadcast deals. However, the State Street restaurant owner’s response to a question about February’s events is quite different. State tournament weekends, which are spread across several sports and brackets, discreetly transfer significant sums of money through local economies in ways that are dependable, consistent, and possibly more sustainable than their more ostentatious counterparts.
It is now more difficult to ignore the statistics supporting this. Even modest attendance figures generate hundreds of millions in total economic output across host cities, according to research on March Madness early-round games, which estimated visitor spending per person at about $361. When you scale that reasoning down to a state basketball tournament that attracts between 25,000 and 40,000 spectators over the course of a long weekend, the numbers still make sense. Accommodations are filled. Because demand spikes more quickly than owners had anticipated, restaurants are understaffed. Local diners, gas stations, and gift shops all sense it.
However, the family unit is what makes high school championships especially fascinating. This isn’t a lone passenger arriving by plane for a game. Grandparents, cousins, and the entire extended network are packing into minivans and making reservations for two nights at whatever hotel still has rooms available. Spending is spread across more categories as a result of this travel pattern, including lodging, meals, gifts, gas, and occasionally even some actual tourism in the host city. On a Saturday afternoon, a family from a small northern town that rarely travels finds themselves lost in the arts district of a mid-size city just because their child’s team advanced to the semifinals.
Cities that have realized this are no longer being covert about it. Similar to how they would compete for a trade show, they are vying for these events. Madison has established a network of host connections with the WIAA. Cities in Texas and Indiana have quietly established themselves as dependable tournament towns, where local chambers of commerce actively collaborate with event organizers, arenas are available, and logistics are efficient. From the outside, it seems that the most astute officials in charge of economic development aren’t holding out for the next Super Bowl bid. The state athletic association is being contacted.
It is reasonable and worthwhile to maintain the skepticism that comes with big-event economics. Research on the real return on major events, such as the Olympic Games, which exceeded budget by billions, regularly cautions against the discrepancy between anticipated and actual gains. The money a city spends on infrastructure preparation, law enforcement, and event planning can subtly reduce the amount of money the hotels earn. That math applies to high school competitions as well. However, the overhead is also significantly reduced. There is no Olympic village. No stadium was constructed with a two-week window in mind. The arenas are already in place. The streets have already been paved.
It’s difficult to ignore the fact that local business owners appear less shocked by the boost in the cities most eager to host these weekends on a regular basis. It’s most likely not a coincidence. The economic case for high school state tournaments is based on regular attendance, year after year, and the quiet accumulation of spending while everyone else chases bigger headlines. It is not based on a single outstanding weekend.
