DENVER — The MLB All-Star Game was a big boost for businesses in downtown Denver. All-Star Game week brought large crowds downtown and lots of fans to Coors Field over the last week.
Now that the game has past, many economists and those part of making the game possible are waiting to learn how much money was generated.
“I think the impact is going to be real. We had close to 49,000 people at all of the All-Star events over the last few days. We had a little over 100,000 people walk through the Convention Center at Play Ball Park that fans experienced,” said Denver Sports Commission, Executive Director Matthew Payne.
They aren’t expecting to know the full impact for a couple of weeks.
“Projections are always tough when it comes to economic impact,” he said.
Denver hosting the All-Star Game was a last-minute decision after the MLB moved it from Atlanta in April.
“Our most recent reference point is really Atlanta when they did some projections of around that $100 million,” Payne said.
Projections for Denver range between $60 and $190 million. Metropolitan State University economics professor Alexandre Padilla said projections are based on a number of things.
“They usually base that on revenues associated with ticket sales. Anything related to food and beverage, hotel accommodations, parking, T-shirts – anything you can think is related to the event or associated with the businesses,” Padilla said.
National Reporter for NBC LX, an online streaming service, Noah Pransky, said officials must also factor in how many fans at the events were local.
“That kind of reduces the economic importance compared to what you are told by the tourism board and the teams,” he said.
While officials hope for those high projections, Pransky said they need to factor in the money that doesn’t stay here.
“You look at these $180 million impact figures, they say don’t believe them because the thing they don’t consider is leakage. Leakage is when money comes into a city but then it gets bled out by corporate ownership,” Pransky said.
Denver will benefit from local businesses but won’t from corporations that are not based here.
Denver Sports Commission added that money wasn’t only spent at Coors Field by those attending the game. The Rockies and MLB donated $5 million toward schools and charitable organizations for the All-Star Legacy Project.