Professor of Sport Management Julie Stevens wrote a piece recently published in the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, as well as The Gleaner in Jamaica, about the role sport can play in driving regional economic development and the use of the Active Economy model to evaluate sport impact.

She writes:

“Traditionally, the economic impact of sports has focused on sports tourism, specifically evaluating sports events. The dominant approach is assessing the economic impact on the total dollar value. Key information about the sport event’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (economic activity), employment (job creation), and public revenue (tax generation) is calculated. Then, the event hosts leverage this evidence to lobby the government and businesses to support their current and future events.

There are two challenges with this approach. First, the economic impact assessment requires financial and human resources to complete and, as a result, usually only focuses on large-scale events. It fails to capture the value of many small and medium-sized sport events. Second—and more importantly—an economic impact sport event focus is too narrow. This view misses the broader value of sport, recreation, and wellness to a regional economy.

So – what’s the solution?”

Continue reading the full article on the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian website.