March Madness and Host Cities


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March Madness is in full swing. With many upsets and underdogs rising to the occasion, you never know what can happen. The NCAA March Madness Division I Men's Basketball Tournament is a single-elimination tournament including 68 of the best college basketball programs in the U.S. How exactly does the tournament fair in the economy?

The NCAA made over $1 Billion in revenue off the tournament from ticket sales, right fees, corporate sponsorships, and T.V. ads. This makes them the most profitable firm who makes the most off of March Madness. Not only does March Madness help the NCAA make a profit, but it also has a great impact on firms around the entire U.S.

Host cities are able to generate tons of profits due to a large number of visitors visiting to watch the games. Unlike other championship games, the tournament games are played all over the U.S. With 14 different host cities for the bracket, it allows businesses to generate much more profit with traveling fans coming in. Firms including hotels, restaurants, shops, etc. Joel Lamp, interim director of sports for the city of Jacksonville states, "It’s a chance to brand your city and offer the people in your city a great event that really is different than anything else." The city of Dayton, OH has seen an increase in its local economy with over $66 million as they've been known to host the First Four games and have hosted the most NCAA tournament games to date. 

 https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/031516/how-much-does-ncaa-make-march-madness.asp
https://livability.com/topics/business/how-the-ncaa-selects-its-march-madness-host-cities
https://newrepublic.com/article/117045/economic-costs-and-benefits-college-basketball-ncaa-tournament

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 4, 2019 at 3:33 PM

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  2. AnonymousApril 4, 2019 at 3:34 PM

    Cool post! I always find it interesting whenever people blog about the NCAA and the money it generates. Adding on to your point about how much the NCAA makes -- apparently the TV deals alone account for $800 million in revenue. Another point I found out was how the coaches are public employees, yet Basketball (and Football) coaches are often the highest-paid public employees. Gamblers also invest a lot of money into this tournament. I thought it was interesting how you pointed out how the host cities generate money through tourism/food/hotel. It seems like everyone involved in March Madness is making money, except for the basketball players themselves. The NCAA still doesn't pay athletes, even when everyone else is profiting off of them. Do you think that the players should receive some cut from the tournament?

    Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/22/ncca-march-madness-tournament-basketball.html

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  3. AnonymousApril 26, 2019 at 10:42 AM

    This is a really important part of sports teams in local areas. For many cities, tehir local sports team can be bringing in most of the cities revenues. Oftentimes you see cities bidding obsecene amounts of money in order to host events and sports teams. The one caveat to this could be the Olympics where countries often see losses after they host these events. I think back to Greece, when they hosted the Olympics and soon after went bankrupt.

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