In honor of the season that’s upon us—hockey season, that is—our blog this week looks at the economic impacts of the Two Harbors and Silver Bay youth hockey programs along with the Two Harbors Curling Club on Lake County.
We, the Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) just completed a study of those winter sports programs—operations and tournaments—for Lovin‘ Lake County, the official marketing organization for the county.
The Two Harbors Youth Hockey Association (THYHA) and Silver Bay Youth Hockey (SBYH) are the governing organizations of youth hockey in their respective cities for children ages six through 14. The Two Harbors Curling Club (THCC) offers both recreational and competitive curling opportunities.
For our study, Lake County hockey and curling included all THYHA’s and SBYHA’s youth games and tournaments, the North Shore Storm high school hockey program—which uses both the Lake County (Two Harbors) and Rukavina (Silver Bay) arenas— and THCC’s weekly leagues, bonspiels (curling tournaments), and rentals.
The organizations’ representatives provided game and tournament schedules for the most recent season (2021-22) as well as the number of participating teams and the length of each tournament.
In 2021-22, Lake County saw 401 visiting teams— 5,423 players, 988 coaches—and 12,204 spectators during the 2021-22 season because of its youth hockey and curling programs, for a total of 18,615 visitors.
Over $2.3 million was estimated to have been spent by these visitors in the county on lodging, restaurants, gasoline, and other items.
Specifically, THYHA games and tournaments brought 161 teams to Lake County from around the state, equating to nearly 10,000 players, coaches, and spectators. SBYH brought 178 teams, equating to more than 8,000 visitors during the 2021-22 season.
More than $100,000 in revenue is estimated to have been generated by the THCC for the study area economy through hosted tournaments and games during the 2021-22 season.
Table 1 below shows the total economic impacts for Lake County hockey games, tournaments, and curling events played within the study area. According to results of modeling, visitors coming to the study area for the purpose of Lake County curling and hockey supported 29 jobs in 2021-22. Visitor spending from hockey and curling tournaments and games also supported over $800,000 in wages and benefits, nearly $1.3 million to the study area’s gross regional product, and more than $2.3 million in output in 2021-22, through direct, indirect, and induced effects.
Read the full report here.