Beyond retrospective assessment. Sport event economic impact studies as a management tool for informing event organization

Sport event promoters aim to organize them to get the best return on their investment. The purpose of this study is to learn better how to manage the event to maximize the benefit to the host area. Most studies on economic impact of sporting events focus on mega events or look for an impact in medium to large size cities. This study estimates the effect of a two-day event, the Rally Ourense, that takes place in a small town in Spain. Economic impact is estimated based on surveys of spectators and interviews of competitors in the 2009, 2010, and 2011 editions of the rally. The results show that the race has favorable effects, but also suggest that the impact could be increased with some simple changes to the event structure.