Last Saturday’s Britney Spears concert drew onlookers and thousands of eager fans to the Alerus Center parking lot before the music started, but it also attracted economists who were on hand to determine how large of an impact this event had on the local economy.
David Flynn, assistant professor of economics at UND, said this concert stood out from many other events in recent years due to the number of outside visitors it attracted. About one-third of tickets were sold to Canadians, he said.
“That outside influence is going to give this a larger impact than it might typically,” he said.
Results of his survey are still preliminary, but he said the extra Canadian traffic in Grand Forks by itself accounted for as much as $500,000 in extra spending. That money was spent on hotel rooms, restaurants and retail shopping over the weekend.
“That alone accounts for a significant amount of extra taxes generated in the local economy,” he said. “That’s quite good.”
Even without looking at the large number of international travelers, the event drew many people from the Midwest who also put external dollars into the Grand Forks economy. Flynn guessed the concert brought in a couple of million dollars of extra spending to businesses in the community.
“People made an evening of it,” he said. “They went to dinner beforehand, went to the show and went to bars afterwards.”
It’s hard to compare the scale of the Spears concert to past Grand Forks events, but Flynn said most people he interviewed said it was bigger than the 2002 Cher concert. The last time the city hosted a big impact event like this, he said, was probably the 2005 World Junior Ice Hockey Tournament or the 2008 World Men’s Curling Tournament.
Flynn said the extent of the concert’s external draw was surprising, and was a “very good thing.”
“I believe that’s the point of having these big shows,” he said. “It should draw from a wide area, and as a result, you get some external dollars flowing in.”
His full economic impact study is not completed, and ticket sales and other information from the Alerus Center are not yet available.
Source: GrandForksHerald
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