The West Michigan Sports Commission has been generating economic impact through sports tourism for the past 16 years hosting youth/amateur sporting events at Plainfield Township’s Meijer Sports Complex.
“Each year’s going to be a little bit different in terms of how many events, the number of visitors that are coming in, and then the hotel room night and the spend.”
West Michigan Sports Commission President Mike Guswiler explains an industry calculator is used determining economic impact.
“So, our number of events were higher than 2022, but the concentration of athletes or participants and spectators at those events were slightly lower.”
Hotel nights decreased 27.7% from 2022, but visitors spent more money.
“The spend, because of differences in some calculations, inflation and growth in the purse spend per family did grow our economic impact.”
121 sporting events generated $87.9 million in estimated economic impact, A 2.8% decrease from 2022’s $90.5 million.
Guswiler explains fluctuations are expected. He performs an annual review reexamining events and consider what events, old and new, will continue growth into the future.