With apologies to Victorian-era poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Cleveland Cavaliers, how do we love thee?
Let us count the ways:
To the depth, breadth and height of sales of burgers, fries, shakes, ribs, beer, soda, pizza, ice cream, merchandise, hotel rooms, plus tips, parking fees, taxes (no escaping those …) and more that each Cavs playoff game generates and dribbles into the Northeast Ohio economy.
We’re talking millions of dollars per game.
Those dollars start with people such as sisters Sophie and Grace Goldenberg.
The two Akron residents took each other’s pictures outside Quicken Loans Arena early Tuesday evening before going in.
They ate at B Spot, part of Cleveland celebrity chef Michael Symon’s burger chain inside the Q, and then took their seats to watch the Cavs play the Toronto Raptors in the first Eastern Conference finals game.
“I’ve never been to a playoff game, so I’m really excited,” said Sophie, 25, who works at Don Drumm Studios in Akron. Likewise for Grace, 20, a junior accounting major at Ohio State.
Afterward, Sophie said that in addition to the $200 their two playoff tickets cost, she and her sister paid about $45 at B Spot for burgers and shakes.
Just for the sake of argument, multiply the $245 the Goldenberg sisters spent by 20,582 — the announced attendance Tuesday — and you get $5.04 million (most of that is ticket cost). And keep in mind that many people purchased more expensive seats and spent way more than $45 for food and other extras before, during and after the game.
There have been efforts made to formally quantify how a Cavs playoff game impacts the local economy.
“Each playoff game brings in about $3.6 million per game,” said Jen Kramer, spokeswoman for Destination Cleveland. “That’s people spending money in the Q and spending money elsewhere.”
If the Cavs make it into the championship round, that figure will jump to as much as $5 million per home game, Kramer said. Those are dollars that flow into the immediate Cleveland area, with the figures coming from a report the Cavs commissioned, Kramer said.
Advisory firm CSL — Conventions, Sports and Leisure International — did the economic impact study, said Cavs and Q Chief Executive Officer Len Komoroski.
“The Q has been the major economic force, driver, in downtown Cleveland,” Komoroski said. For 2015, the arena generated $288 million in “total output” and created 3,500 jobs, along with $34 million in taxes, he said.
The impact of Quicken Loans Arena and the Cavs goes beyond the money generated in playoffs, Komoroski said. The arena is a great example of catalytic investment that helped create the Gateway district in the city, he said. It has led to the building of a casino, hotels, restaurants and more in what had been a rundown section of the city, he said.
And the Cavs, with the addition of superstar LeBron James, now have a national and international following that promotes Cleveland and the rest of Northeast Ohio, Komoroski said.
“Not all economic impact can be measured in dollars and cents,” he said.
“Cleveland is now a top destination place for tourists,” Komoroski said. “People come here and say ‘I had no idea.’ They come here and they are amazed at what they find.”
Impact debated
Others are skeptical about how much financial impact sports has on a local economy, adding that measuring such a thing means looking at many variables.
“Overall, study after study shows having professional sports in your community has no economic benefit whatsoever,” said Ned Hill. He teaches economic development policy, public policy and public finance at Ohio State. The professor previously was dean of the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University.
That is in large part because when local people go to see their favorite team play, “it’s a reallocation of money” within the region, Hill said. “What they aren’t doing is going to a neighborhood restaurant and spending $100 or $120 on dinner. … That’s a meal that isn’t being eaten in Akron or Strongsville or Cuyahoga Falls.”
That’s also called the “substitution effect,” said Iryna Lendel, interim director for the Center for Economic Development at Cleveland State. Evaluating a sports team’s economic impact starts with measuring “good money in” — money that comes from outside a specific geographic region.
The substitution effect involves people spending their money at a sporting event that otherwise would have been spent elsewhere locally, she said. “It’s a moving of money, not bringing good money in,” Lendel said.
Hill said there are benefits, particularly if a stadium or arena is located within a city. A city location creates jobs for nearby residents and also generates local tax revenue, he said.
And there are positive “intangibles” as well, Hill said. Local sports teams also give people a shared conversation and sense of community, he said.
“Cleveland has an image that spills over to Northeast Ohio,” he said. And that image is better now than it was 20 years ago, he said.
Hill said he has seen firsthand the international impact of the Cavs and star player LeBron. On a trip to China, he saw a vendor selling LeBron #23 Cavs jerseys. And on a trip to Croatia, he saw a two-story poster of LeBron.
Dollars reach Akron
In any case, Cavs playoff dollars filter down to businesses in Akron and elsewhere.
“The Cavs have definitely spiked our sales, no doubt about that,” said Nick Kaluger, general manager for 12-year-old The Basement Sports Bar & Grill on Waterloo Road in Akron.
He said sales rise as much as 50 percent on Cavs playoff nights compared to nonplayoff evenings at The Basement. While the sports fan in him wants to see the Cavs sweep in the playoffs, the business person in him would not mind a few extra games.
The return in 2014 of Akron native and superstar player LeBron to the Cavs was a big economic boost, Kaluger said. “We hit the lottery here.”
Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him @JimMackinnonABJ on Twitter