City of Vancouver’s financial projection of Women’s World Cup questioned

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The City of Vancouver has come out with a projection that the Women’s World Cup tournament will bring in $36.7-million, but a local freelance journalist says that’s an unlikely figure.

An immediate cash injection of that kind of money thanks to this major event, how could anybody be against that?  But it’s not that simple, says Bob Mackin, who points out studies of mega-events have shown these sorts of projections are generally a bit overblown.

“Those figures really are just a gross calculated by a lot of factors that are put into economic estimates, computer programs by sport tourism advocates and lobbyists, and those are the people that really do stand to benefit the most.”

He points out there will be economic winners — hotels and restaurants near BC Place should benefit — and there could be long-term benefits for tourism as many people will be watching matches worldwide.

“These figures are always inflated,” says Mackin. “There will be benefits to Vancouver hosting this as long as everything goes just fine and the weather stays nice, the roof is open at BC Place, and there’s good images of great soccer action emanating from BC Place.”

Mackin does point out we’ve seen an uptick of tourism in recent times which some have attributed to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, but it’s always difficult to say absolutely there are concrete links between major events and the tourism that does or doesn’t follow after the fact.

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