The first two years of the Valero Alamo Bowl’s improved team selection rights delivered the first two Top 15 match-ups in bowl history. Highly ranked teams translated into excited fan bases that traveled well according to a survey conducted by Strategic Marketing Services and SportsEconomics as last year’s Valero Alamo Bowl generated $45.8 million in total economic impact based on direct visitor spending of $25 million for San Antonio.
The 51,990 incremental visitors attending the bowl game from out-of-town between #11 TCU and #15 Oregon was the second highest total in Valero Alamo Bowl history trailing only 55,174 out-of-town visitors to San Antonio for the 2007 bowl game between Penn State and Texas A&M.
Last year’s impact was similar to the previous Valero Alamo Bowl when #14 UCLA beat #11 Kansas State 40-35 in a game that delivered 49,580 out-of-town visitors and a $45.9 million total economic impact to San Antonio.
“The first two Valero Alamo Bowls of our renewed six-year partnership with the Big 12 and Pac-12 conferences have far exceeded our expectations,” said Lamont Jefferson, Valero Alamo Bowl Chairman. “The match-up of the conferences two top teams after the College Football Playoffs has brought Top 15 teams and thrilling games to San Antonio in addition to significant contributions to San Antonio’s economy. On behalf of our partnership with the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau and our title sponsor Valero, we thank our conference partners. Their 100,000 loyal supporters that came to San Antonio brought an economic impact of over $90 million the last two years illustrating the value of our improved team selection rights.”
The impact study from last year also determined that out-of-state visitors stayed an average of 2.7 days spending $176 per day. Nearly two-thirds of the out-of-state visitors and 15 percent of Texas residents indicated this was their first trip to San Antonio.
The complete 2016 impact analysis study conducted by SportsEconomics is available through the following link: http://bit.ly/VABImpact2016