BENTONVILLE -- Events held by the Parks and Recreation Department last year had an estimated economic impact of $3.1 million, indicating a significant impact on the local economy, said David Wright, parks and recreation director.
That's more than double the estimated $1.4 million impact in 2014, and he said they expect the number to be even higher this year.
New events
Bentonville officials were able to acquire two additional large sporting tournaments this year, which will play a role in the economic impact of Parks and Recreation events for 2016.
The United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) will hold its boys 9-year-old, 14-year-old and 16-year-old Global World Series tournaments at Memorial Park in early July. Around 75 teams are expected to compete.
The girls 12U A and 14U/16U B Midwest USSSA National Championships will take place in late July. Organizers are expecting 130-150 teams.
Source: Staff report
Sporting events produced just less than $2.5 million of the $3.1 million, according to Lee Farmer, recreation services manager.
About $465,000 was from collegiate sporting events, such as the NCAA Division II State Softball Classic, the Great American Conference Softball Championship and the Great American Conference Tennis Conference Championships.
Another $185,000 came from running and cycling events. The Bentonville Half Marathon had an estimated economic impact of $175,000 and Slaughter Pen Jam had about $10,000, officials said.
About 450 teams, 261 from outside the region, participated in 15 competitive baseball and softball events last year, Wright said. Officials defined outside the region as beyond a 90-mile radius of the city and only included those who traveled at least that far when calculating the economic impact of events.
Teams traveling more than 90 miles are more likely to stay in hotels and eat out at restaurants in the city, Wright said. That means the $3.1 million is on the conservative side as it doesn't include those who traveled back and forth from neighboring communities and may have eaten or bought gas in Bentonville.
The Parks and Recreation Department uses the same formula the Advertising and Promotions Commission uses to calculate an event's potential economic impact. The formula uses the number of participants, the anticipated number of hotel rooms booked over the length of an event and the anticipated number of meals eaten at restaurants.
Wright said the $3.1 million figure is not an exact number.
"There's no science in figuring out this number, but we do know that the economic impact from these programs is significant," he said.
There's "no foolproof way" to get actual numbers when trying to determine an economic impact, said Mervin Jebaraj, assistant director for the Center for Business and Economic Research at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas.
Jebaraj said he can't speak specifically about the Bentonville Parks and Recreation Department numbers because he hasn't seen them but that if a direct survey can't be done with event participants, using a proxy, like the department did, is the best way to calculate economic impact.
Officials are expecting the economic impact for events this year to surpass those of last year because the baseball and softball tournaments are growing in the number of teams participating and new events have been added to this year's roster.
The Arkansas High School Swimming and Diving Championships were held the first time in Bentonville at the Community Center earlier this year. Two large youth baseball and softball tournaments are coming to Bentonville for the first time in July, Farmer said.
Ellis Hall's Missouri Elite 12U girls softball team competed in the USSSA's Pot of Gold Roundup tournament in Bentonville near the end of March.
The team plays in three to four different states each year. It was the second year for them to play in Bentonville, Hall said. Bentonville tournaments are always well-run and have good officiating and competition, he said.
The team usually books 10 to 12 hotel rooms and eats at restaurants two to three times each stay, he said. The amount of down time they have in the city depends on how well they play.
"Bentonville is just a great place to go," he said. "Our time there has always been fun."
The Parks and Recreation Department partners with Visit Bentonville, which assists with marketing, promoting and recruiting events.
Visit Bentonville spent $25,600 to assist with city baseball and softball tournaments, $12,500 for Slaughter Pen Jam Festival, $18,000 for other biking events and $22,000 for the Bentonville Half Marathon, according to Kalene Griffith, Visit Bentonville president and CEO.
"Our focus is to develop marketing materials to promote the events to people from outside the area," she said.
Runners from 31 states participated in the 2015 Bentonville Half Marathon, according to the Parks and Recreation Department's annual report. Competitor Magazine named the race the Best Half Marathon in the South for the second consecutive year.
Visit Bentonville also financially supports capital projects that will bring in tourists and also benefit the city's residents.
"Tourism is economic development," Griffith said, explaining the two go hand-in-hand.
Examples include the $500,000 for the soccer fields at Memorial Park built more than 10 years ago, the more than $1 million for Lawrence Plaza and the $1 million for the competitive indoor swimming pool at the Community Center.
The indoor pool will attract swim teams outside the area and also be used by Community Center patrons year-round, Griffith said. She said she hopes to see four to five meets there annually.
Griffith used Lawrence Plaza as an example of the partnership between Visit Bentonville and the city.
Lawrence Plaza, at Northeast A and Blake street, is a splash pad in the summer and an ice rink in the winter.
"Our team developed the concept and (partial) funding. The city's team took on the design and management of the facility," she said, adding there are more than 25,000 people from multiple states who visit the ice rink and splash pad.
It's a partnership such as this that allows the Parks and Recreation events to be significant economically, Wright said.
NW News on 04/25/2016