All-Star Game paid off in dollars, “psychic income”

Those were big times last July, when the All-Star Baseball Game was played in Kansas City. Crowds lined the Plaza for the parade, and according to a new report, those who came to town spent $58 million on food, hotel rooms and other things.

People spent about $58 million dollars on things like hotel rooms, food, tickets and other things related to baseball’s All Star game, experts reported Thursday.

Of that, one to two million dollars went into city coffers as taxes, assistant city manager Kimiko Black Gilmore reported to the city council.

A city report shows the economic impact of the All-Star Game.

That offset about the same amount the city spent on road work and other infrastructure improvements that were scheduled anyway but were done ahead of time, she said.

Aaron W. Clopton, an associate professor at the University of Kansas, reported that the city also gained in intangibles that he called “psychic income.”

Those are things like pride, excitement and attachment to the city. They also include happiness with the infrastructure improvements coupled with support for more of them.

His study is not yet completed, he said, but it shows that men scored higher on those things than women and whites scored higher than other races.

Mayor Sly James said the event sent a message: “We can book a major convention event and do it well.”

He said he has since spoken with people shopping for a major convention site and the response was, “we’d love to come here; get another hotel and we will.”

So could the All Star game feed support for another hotel?

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