The Virginian-Pilot
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Young athletes and their families contributed as much as $41 million of spending to the Hampton Roads economy during the Amateur Athletic Union's Junior Olympic Games this summer, according to one estimate.
The Games, held from July 29 to Aug. 7, drew 14,733 athletes from the United States and several other nations. The athletes participated in 18 events at venues in Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
The Hampton Roads Sports Commission, which hosted the event, commissioned an economic impact study by Sportsimpacts, a Missouri-based company specializing in sports-related economic research. It spent $10,000 on the study.
The $41 million is Sports-impacts' "aggressive estimate" of increased regional spending. The conservative estimate was $35 million, said Jack Ankerson, executive director of the Hampton Roads Sports Commission.
Athletes, their families and coaches spent money on hotels, rental cars, food, gas and more.
To conduct the study, Sports-impacts worked with a team of data collectors from Old Dominion University's sports management program to distribute questionnaires at the events.
According to its research, more than 80,000 hotel room nights were generated across Hampton Roads. Nearly 72 percent of travelers were visiting the region for the first time. More than half - 55.1 percent - said they were likely to return as tourists within the next two years.
The commission has hosted the AAU Junior Olympics in 1998, 2001 and 2006, and is scheduled to do so again in 2015.
Christopher Dinsmore, (757) 446-2271, chris.dinsmore@pilotonline.com
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