Economic Impact of the Summer X-Games 1998 on the San Diego Economy

Using a standard economic impact methodology, this study examines the quantitative estimates of the direct and total economic impact of the summer X-Games on the San Diego economy. The paper closely follows the framework developed by Tyrrell (1995) in his study of the X-Games in Rhode Island. The direct economic impact consists of spectator impact, athlete impact, sponsor impact and administration, media and volunteer impact. The study also estimates the fiscal impact in terms of the transient occupancy tax (TOT) revenues generated by this ten-day event created and organised by the Entertaining and Sports Programming Network (ESPN). An attempt is made to quantify the impact of television exposure of the city of San Diego through television programming and commercials. The X-Games are relatively new, having started in 1995. This is the first study of the summer X-Games that uses primary data collected through the surveys of 500 spectator parties and 250 athletes to deduce the regional economic impact.