We were told that the tournament would have a major impact on the economy;
The soccer tournament is estimated to bring $17 million to the Sioux Falls area.
Lets test this prediction against July’s monthly financial report (Full Doc:7-17-monthly-fin-report).
We should have raised an additional $510,000 in sales tax revenue (3 pennies)Â from the year before if the economic impact was actually $17 million. But if you look at the numbers, it seems we didn’t bump up much from the month before.
For example, in June (MAY)Â we saw a $73,172 sales tax bump from the year before (3 pennies). Let’s say we were predicting the same bump in July (June). We had a $204,088 bump from the year before. Subtract the June numbers and you come up with a $130,916 bump from the tournament which would mean approximately a $4.3 million dollar bump. The biggest increase was in the 3rd penny entertainment tax and lodging (BID) tax which does not contribute to the city’s general fund.
$4.3 million dollar impact is nothing to shake a stick at for about a week of visitors, but it is certainly a long ways from the $17 million prediction.
There’s now more hotel options outside city limits. Brandon has several, Tea has a nice new one, Hartford has one, Grand Falls, etc.. Bed taxes are high in Sioux Falls. The city is in the hotel business and major chains stay away. Gas prices are low. Many drive in and drive out without staying. Food and service is inferior and expensive on Louise. Who goes mall shopping anymore. Families are fewer children so fewer players. Lots of other reasons.
2016 same month revenue would be a better comparison.
If you do that, it would show virtually NO bump from the tournament. There was $237,208 more revenue collected in July in 2016 compared to 2015.
http://www.siouxfalls.org/finance/monthly-reports
Do we know which hotels where being used/promoted the most? I wonder if the locations where primarily on the outer rim of our city where there are no local shops/restaurants that could have benefitted from the high number of visitors. If there money was being spent at chains and the mall, the financial impact is severely less.