Can Detroit use Sports to right itself? AP Photo/Paul Vernon
Detroit has many problems, that is not news, but the time has come to get creative in how the city and the region deals with these problems. Among the chief concerns in Detroit is the continued falling population as anyone with the means moves out of the city. This leaves the city devoid of a tax base, and short on funds to provide essential services.
The citizens of Detroit, and the resident of Michigan thought they had the answer to this problem more than ten years ago when we all voted to allow the construction of three downtown Casino’s.
A decade after the first temporary Casino opened it doors, and as the three casino’s now finish their permanent locales I think it is fair to say that this strategy didn’t work.
Over the last four years Detroit has hosted some of the biggest Sporting events in this country. The MLB All Star Game, the NFL Super Bowl, the NCAA Final Four to name a few, have recently been held in downtown Detroit. On top of that Detroit has hosted the Red Bull Air Race, Wrestlemaina, and we have seen our Detroit Tigers go to the World Series, and our Detroit Red Wings host the NHL Stanley Cup finals.
If we add these events to the annual Detroit based events like the Detroit Grand Prix, and the annual hydroplane races we can start to assess what these kind of events add to the city's economy. In fact Detroit Sports.org has compiled a list of the direct economic benefit these events had for the city of Detroit. A partial list:
• The Super Bowl had 273.9 million dollars of direct economic impact
• The MLB All Star Game added 42 million of direct economic impact to Detroit and the South East Region of Michigan
• Going back to 2004 when the Detroit area hosted the Ryder Cup of Golf we see a direct economic impact of 77 million dollars brought to the region by that event
• The 2007 Detroit Grand Prix added 53 million dollars worth of direct economic impact to Detroit
Those are some pretty big numbers but we must weight them against what this region paid to build the facilities that hosted these events.
The citizens of Michigan forked over 115 million dollars or 38.3% of the total construction cost of Comerica park which has now hosted a MLB All Star Game and the World Series.
Ford Field cost nearly 500 million dollars total of which a large portion was financed publically. The Detroit Lions did incur a huge part of the debt but Ford Field with out doubt cost the citizens of Michigan a good deal more than Comerica Park.
Since opening in 2002 Ford Field has hosted the Super Bowl, Wrestlemaina, the NCAA final four, and numerous other sporting events that are not associated with the Detroit Lions.
From these numbers we can draw several conclusions. First Sports has the ability to help save Detroit, but to get that ability the public must be willing to invest millions of public dollars, and more importantly realize that no single sporting event is going to get the job done.
That means that Detroit must work hard with sports leagues, with the surrounding community governments, and hope that our sports teams continue to make the playoffs, in order for sports to help save Detroit.
This is but the first article in a series dealing with this issue. Many of my fellow Detroit Examiner will be discussing this issue over the next two days.
Can Sports Save Detroit?
From the World Series to the Super Bowl, Detroit has hosted nearly every big-time sporting event imaginable over the past few years. With all the challenges facing the local economy, just how critical are sports to the city’s future?
Examiners have a wide variety of different perspectives on the issue. Click here for their views.
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