Casper sees almost $10 million in economic impact from spring sport tournaments

CASPER, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) - Casper hosts seven high school sport state tournaments each year. In the spring, three tournaments come through town before April.

Wrestling, girls basketball, and boys basketball were all hosted in the first three months of 2022. The combined events made an almost $10 million impact on the local economy.

“Sports is a really important segment of business for Casper we know that people love to travel for sports they spend a lot time traveling and stay in hotels and go out to dinners with their families so it’s a big big driver of local economy here for us,” said Visit Casper Director of Marketing Amanda Scherlin.

According to Visit Casper, the number of fans at high school sports is moving back up. Though they haven’t seen 2019 numbers yet, they are moving in the right direction.

Visit Casper did not provide a fan approximation for the wrestling state tournament, but there was about $2.3 million in economic impact from the event.

The 1A and 2A state basketball tournaments saw about 9,000 people through the doors. About 90 percent of the fans were out of town visitors. The tournaments had an approximate $3.4 million impact on Casper.

The 3A and 4A state tournaments saw slightly more fans, about 9,200 people. About 75% of those were visitors to Casper. According to Visit Casper the 3 and 4A tournaments had an approximate $3.3 million impact.

“A lot of our local businesses really say that when the state tournaments come to town that’s really when their year starts because after the holidays when things slow down sometimes they don’t pick up again until these tournaments come and then it’s just right into the summer season so it’s a big deal for our community and we’re so fortunate to have these events in Casper,” said Scherlin.

Casper will also be hosting high school state track and field championships in May.

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