Sweet 16 to bring economic boost to Salt Lake City

SALT LAKE CITY — Three decades ago, Utah's capital city played host to what is widely considered the most important college basketball game of the modern era. The 1979 matchup of Larry Bird's Indiana State Sycamores and Earvin "Magic" Johnson's Michigan State Spartans is still the most-watched televised college basketball game of all time.

That historic game took place at the University of Utah's Huntsman Center and fostered what is today called "March Madness."

This week, four of the nation's best collegiate teams will again converge on Salt Lake City for the West Regional round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament — otherwise known as the Sweet 16. Similar scenes will play out in St. Louis, Houston and Syracuse, N.Y. The local games will be played on Thursday and Saturday at EnergySolutions Arena.

For the cities lucky enough to host these games, each will prosper economically.

The economic impact from this week's festivities will be about $8 million to $10 million, according to Jeff Robbins, president and CEO of the Utah Sports Commission. The nonprofit organization was created to foster national and international amateur sports competitions to be held in Utah and worked in collaboration with the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau to bring the NCAA event back to Salt Lake City.

"It takes a community effort, (with) a lot of people coordinating," he told the Deseret News. "The estimates are that between 10,000 and 12,000 people will come in from out of state (for the three-day event)."

Typically, the majority of those visitors stay for the duration of the event even if their team loses early, meaning a major boost for local restaurants, retailers and hotels, Robbins said.

Besides the direct economic benefit gained from staging such a high-profile event, there is also an indirect benefit.

"The economic impact is great, but the actual (television) exposure … the aerial (shots and) the cityscape against the snow-capped Wasatch Mountains are really going to be stunning," Shawn Stinson, the bureau's communications director, told the Deseret News. "That's the type of coverage that we probably will not be able to put a dollar value on, but it's right up there with the direct economic spending."

Stinson added that while the tournament is not the biggest event that Salt Lake City will host this year, it does compare favorably with many of the other trade shows, conventions and other specialty sporting events that come to town regularly.