The NBA All-Star Game and the entire week of special events, parties and festivities is a much needed economic and positive media boost to Louisiana for the third time in the past 10 years. In fact, the mega event has steadily grown since New Orleans last hosted. Although New Orleans had no official study performed for the 2008 All-Star Game, projections from the 2007 event held in Las Vegas placed the economic impact somewhere around $90 million mark. The University of New Orleans Division of Economic Research performed a thorough study during the 2014 event, concluding that All-Star generated a $106.1 million economic impact and $5 million in new tax dollars for the State of Louisiana. The upcoming 2017 event, although a bit more compressed due to facility availability, is expected to have the same return on investment for the state and city.
Often overlooked is the value of the media exposure that comes along with these mega-events. In 2008, there were more than 2,000 credentialed members of the media in town covering the weekend of events as well as providing a major platform to tell the real story of the status of New Orleans’ recovery. The success of the mega-event as well as the positive publicity surrounding the weekend had an immeasurable impact on the perception of New Orleans for all those outside the State of Louisiana. Following the weekend, it was clear that if New Orleans could successfully host such a complicated and important event as All-Star, then we could certainly host your event, convention or family reunion.
The importance of successfully hosting this event was not lost on our other major event partners. Soon after hosting 2008 All-Star, the Sports Foundation led successful bids for the 2012 Final Four and 2013 Women’s Final Four. In 2009, the Sports Foundation and Saints produced a successful bid to host the 2013 Super Bowl. Soon followed WrestleMania XXX and the return of NBA All-Star in 2014, lining up and unprecedented run of major sporting events held in the same city.