Las Vegas may not need another sports arena, but that won’t stop it from happening
The economic impact of the Vegas sports boom has been a fast-moving phenomenon, so specific and intriguing that the UNLV Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER)and Sports Innovation Institute have created a tracking tool, the Southern Nevada Sports Economy Data Dashboard, to serve as an evolving research document.
“I think we predicted it and expected it within the traditional drivers of the economy, leisure and hospitality,” says CBER director Andrew Woods of the sports economy surge. “Where we’ve been surprised is the spillover effect into other industries or amateur sports. For example, the number of small businesses in sports instruction, those establishments alone increased 160% over the last 10 years.
“It spills over to members of the community who want to pick up those sports. You see that
at the [school] level where some of the most popular sports are girls flag football and amateur youth hockey.”