Minister of Youth, Sports, and Culture Dr. Daniel Johnson yesterday said he anticipated a greater economic impact from this year's International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Relays event, after a recent impact study conducted by a Canadian sports organization revealed that the 2014 relays generated an economic impact of $23 million, just over twice the government's investment in the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium.
Johnson told Guardian Business the results of the impact study had given the government the confidence to negotiate another two-year agreement with the IAAF in Monaco, with the opportunity to bid for an even longer 10-year hosting contract once the current agreement expires.
"Last year we really did very well. Our economic impact from this event was more than twice what we put into it. This year we're expecting to be better than we did last year. We think we're going to fill more seats in the stadium, we think we're going to have more people purchasing tickets earlier and ticket prices are also going to be slightly up this year," said Johnson.
He added that the stadium would require no major renovations ahead of the 2015 relays aside from cosmetic maintenance. Although Johnson is pleased with the relays' financial performance last year, he said there is significant untapped revenue potential in marketing and merchandizing, while noting that this year's relays would incorporate more cultural events.
"We didn't fully capitalize on some marketing and merchandizing that we could've done. We're going to do some work in the next couple of days to improve on our merchandizing," he said.
Although Johnson had previously stated that the event had generated three times the initial investment in total economic spinoff, he said yesterday that an impact study conducted by a sports agency affiliated with the Canadian government revealed a total spinoff of $23 million on top of an $11 million investment in the stadium.
"We want to be very sure that these large scale events that we're doing get the desired result. Part of it is promotion for tourism and bringing Bahamians together, but we also have to be responsible in our spending to make sure that it pays for itself while ensuring that the impact is widespread and significant enough for us to then lock ourselves in to doing this on a long-term basis," he said.
The 2015 IAAF World Relays is part of the ministry's strategy to boost the country's sports tourism profile through partnerships with international sporting organizations. The government last month announced that Albany would host the 2015 Tiger Woods Hero World Challenge golf tournament, while the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium recently hosted the inaugural Bahamas Bowl college football game.
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