While our sports and recreational tournaments are generating on-site revenue from admission fees and concession sales, the largest economic impact comes from off-site spending in conjunction with tournament attendance, which is significant and virtually recession-proof when it comes to youth tournaments, as parents are passionate about attendance and will give up a vacation in order to travel and watch their kids compete in sports. The youth sports industry in general typically generates the use of more than 47 million hotel rooms annually throughout the country.
Since many of the tournament participants are from outside of Acadiana, during their time here they spend money locally on:
- Food
- Lodging
- Gas
- Entertainment
- Shopping
The 2021 estimated economic impact from five world series tournaments held in July is $5,442,500 with an estimated 18,000 in attendance. The tournaments included: Girls Fast Pitch World Series (68 teams), Shetland World Series (20 teams), Pinto World Series (20 teams), Mustang World Series (6 teams), PONY South Zone Tournament (16 teams).
