The March Madness Economy

Click on the image below to enlarge the full infographic on Newsweek.com.  Just helps put the whole “madness” in perspective.

The graphic is also an excellent example of how to present a lot of information in a fun and engaging way, especially for people who don’t take in information through reading.

But it is also a good reminder for anyone involved in community destination marketing that the numbers are gross, not net.  It may be the impact generated by the event, but it can’t be interpreted as the economic impact on the communities or companies involved.

The latter would require calibrating spending specific to each location including leakage, netting out the expenditures that would have occurred regardless of the tournament and the expenditures that were displaced by the tournament because of disruptions it creates in normal consumer behavior etc.