The Mobile Sports Authority Reports Fiscal Year 2022 Results

The Mobile Sports Authority (MSA), the sports tourism agency for the City and County of Mobile, reported today the organization attracted, supported, and/or hosted 30 sports events during the recently completed fiscal year – FY2022 which runs from October 1, 2021-September 30, 2022. As a result, Fiscal Year 2022 generated an estimated $14.3 million for the Mobile area economy (see MSA 2022 Scoreboard for a complete breakdown). The FY2022 results, however, did not include the largest annually held event on the MSA calendar, the Gulf Coast Challenge football game. Due to an anomaly in the schedule, that game did not take place in FY2022, so it was not included in the past year’s results.

Those 30 completed sports events involved 22 different sports, such as, basketball, gymnastics, volleyball, baseball, track & field, wrestling, football, soccer, and even a world turkey-calling championship, plus many others. As a comparison, over the last 5 fiscal years, the MSA has hosted an average of 31 events per year (even with the Covid year of 2020 included), representing a 19% increase over the previous 2012-2017 years. As for another notable number, 8 of the 30 events held last fiscal year were either first or second-time events for the MSA and 17 of those 30 events were youth-oriented, that is, competitors ranging from ages 4-19. And those youth events typically bring in more visitors as more of the families tend to travel for the youth events.   

“As we get further and further away from the pandemic, the participation and spectator numbers for sports events are returning to pre-Covid levels, and in some cases, exceeding pre-Covid numbers as competitions are flourishing. Based on the trends, we believe that visiting sports events will continue to be an essential part of our future tourism activity. And we’ve been able to attract/host those quality sports events due to the continued strong support the MSA has received from the Mobile County Commission, Mayor Stimpson and the Mobile City Council, and a very sports-oriented Board of Trustees.,” said Danny Corte, Executive Director of the MSA. “Since 2012, the MSA has attracted, hosted, managed, or co-managed 314 sporting events, which have provided an estimated $199 million economic boost for the Mobile area. As we continue to invest in our sports facilities, the future continues to look bright as we’re constantly engaging sports-event owners about the advantages of coming to play in our beautiful area.”