Staff File Photo by Laura-Chase McGehee/Chattanooga Times Free Press/
A UTK men’s 8+ makes their way down the home stretch of the Southeast’s largest fall head race, the Head of the Hooch.Sporting events in 2010 brought an estimated $23 million to the area, the Greater Chattanooga Sports & Events Committee announced Thursday.
The total fell short of the record $25.1 million in 2009 and was the fourth-highest economic impact since the Sports Committee’s formation in 1992. The 2010 lineup did not include the Football Championship Subdivision title game, which will be held tonight in the Dallas suburb of Frisco after being played each December at Finley Stadium from 1997 to 2009.
“It was actually a lot more than I thought it would be,” Sports Committee president Scott Smith said of the impact total. “I thought we would be in the range of $19 million or $20 million without the FCS game, but the Summit softball complex has made a huge difference in terms of extra softball tournaments and even some baseball tournaments that have been able to be staged out there that we didn’t previously have.”
The economic impact of $48.1 million the past two years broke the previous two-year mark of $42.5 million set in 1999-2000.
Leading the way again was November’s Head of the Hooch rowing regatta, which brought in an estimated $4.75 million. The NSA girls’ fastpitch “B” World Series and the 18-under “A” and “B” World Series brought in a combined $1.71 million in July, and the Athletic Championships Cheerleading brought in $1.5 million last January.