● From our sister site, TheSportsExaminer.com ●
Showing a considerable resilience since the Covid-19 pandemic, the impact of sports on the Los Angeles region expanded in 2022 to $8.9 billion in all, up a staggering 27% in just one year.
And nothing at all to do with the 2028 Olympic Games.
This finding was announced during Tuesday’s L.A. Sports Innovation Conference held at the YouTube Theater at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Created by the Institute for Applied Economics of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) for the Los Angeles Sports Council, the report showed a remarkable recovery from the heavy pandemic restrictions in California, and specially in Los Angeles County:
● $8.9 billion total economic impact in 2022 vs. $7.0 billion in 2021 (+27%)
● $7.4 billion pro-sports impact in 2022 vs. $6.0 billion in 2021 (+23%)
● $1.5 billion collegiate-sports impact in 2022 vs. $964 million in 2021 (+56%)
Both the professional and college sports economic impacts were far ahead of the pre-pandemic report delivered on 2018, which had $5.3 billion in pro-sports impact and $1.2 billion for college sports (total: $6.5 billion).
The opening of SoFi Stadium provided a boost to the totals and the figures do not include one-time events such as the 2022 All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium or the February 2022 NFL Super Bowl LVI.
The employment numbers also showed marked increases, in part thanks to the opening of new facilities, but also the re-opening of facilities closed during the pandemic:
● 54,440 jobs directly created in 2022 vs. 20,850 in 2021
● 28,990 jobs indirectly created in 2022 vs. 18,840 in 2021
● 83,430 total sports-related jobs in 2022 vs. 37,690 in 2021 (+210%)
There also a calculation made on the amount of state and local taxes collected, at $365.1 million, only slightly ahead of $363.6 million in 2021 and 353.9 million in 2018.
The study was quite limited, and incorporated data from the 12 regional major professional teams in baseball (2), basketball (3), football (2), hockey (2) and soccer (3). The area’s college teams survey was limited to the eight largest, including UCLA, USC, Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine, UC Irvine and CSUN, Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State.
The clear driver has been the opening of new facilities, which have been filled by existing and new team fan bases. With the Intuit Dome opening in Inglewood in 2024 as the home of the Los Angeles Clippers, another expansion is anticipated.
~ Rich Perelman
Be the first to comment