The Baton Rouge Area Sports Foundation has averaged an estimated economic impact of more than $32 million per year during the last 10 years, foundation President and CEO Jerry Stovall said today.
Stovall, a former NFL player and Heisman Trophy runner-up at LSU, doled out the figure and others during the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge’s weekly meeting. He also stressed the importance the foundation has on its partners and briefly talked about its transition as he readies to leave his post as president and CEO in 2017.
Stovall said in the early months of his tenure the foundation wasn’t so much concerned with attracting events to Baton Rouge unless they had a positive cash flow and economic impact. The BRASF’s past events include the NCAA track and field national championship, the Southwestern Athletic Conference baseball and softball championships, and the United States Bowling Congress Open Championships.
Stovall said that since 2006 the foundation has generated an estimated economic impact of more than $340 million. Meanwhile, it gets a $100,000 grant per year from the state through a cooperative endeavor agreement.
Last year alone, BRASF events had an estimated economic impact of approximately $33 million.
The greatest economic impact came during the first quarter of 2015 when the foundation hosted the 2015 Louisiana Marathon Weekend, the Short Course State Championship Swim Meet and the Purple and Gold Gymnastics Meet, among others. There were 19,707 competitors who visited Baton Rouge for 15 different events during that quarter, Stovall said. The estimated economic impact was more than approximately $13.5 million.
After being at the foundation’s helm for more than 20 years, Stovall is serving his last year as the head of BRASF. It was announced in July that he will be succeeded by Eric Engemann, the foundation’s current vice president, who will take the foundation’s reins on Jan. 1, 2017. Stovall will take on a consulting role at that time.
“When we began to think about the transition, about a year and a half ago Eric and I began to talk about it, tried to strategize about it and pray about it,” Stovall said.
It was important to make sure they and everyone on the foundation’s board were on the same page, he said. The current board has 15 slots and presently has 14 active members who Stovall said represents the community.
“What we’re trying to do is make sure that that relationships that we build are long lasting,” he said.
—Alexandria Burris
