We were told that the tournament would have a major impact on the economy;
The soccer tournament is estimated to bring $17 million to the Sioux Falls area.
Lets test this prediction against July’s monthly financial report (Full Doc:7-17-monthly-fin-report).
We should have raised an additional $510,000 in sales tax revenue (3 pennies)Â from the year before if the economic impact was actually $17 million. But if you look at the numbers, it seems we didn’t bump up much from the month before.
For example, in June (MAY)Â we saw a $73,172 sales tax bump from the year before (3 pennies). Let’s say we were predicting the same bump in July (June). We had a $204,088 bump from the year before. Subtract the June numbers and you come up with a $130,916 bump from the tournament which would mean approximately a $4.3 million dollar bump. The biggest increase was in the 3rd penny entertainment tax and lodging (BID) tax which does not contribute to the city’s general fund.
$4.3 million dollar impact is nothing to shake a stick at for about a week of visitors, but it is certainly a long ways from the $17 million prediction.