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<\/p>\nRyan Kaplan \u201918 combined his knowledge of finance\u00a0 as an economics major with his experience as a student-athlete to reveal the multi-million dollar economic impact of IWU\u2019s Department of Athletics on the Bloomington-Normal community.<\/p>\n
While examining the various expenditures and sources of revenue generated by IWU\u2019s NCAA Division III Athletics Department, Kaplan calculated that food and gas consumption from five IWU teams alone \u2013 football, men\u2019s and women\u2019s soccer, and men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball \u2013 generated three jobs and $250,000 for the local economy over the course of his four-year study. Additionally, ticket sales from football, men\u2019s basketball and women\u2019s basketball created an estimated economic impact of $750,000 and six jobs over the course of four years. Kaplan generated these figures by running data through The Regional Input-Output Modeling System (RIMS II), which \u2013 according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis \u2013 is a tool used by investors, planners and elected officials to objectively assess the potential economic impacts of various projects.<\/p>\n
Kaplan compiled attendance records from ticketed IWU sporting events from 2013 through 2017 and used Google Maps to calculate team transportation fuel consumption. Along with collecting data, Kaplan spent much of his time manipulating Microsoft Excel functions to generate the economic impact statistics before presenting his findings upon conclusion of the fall semester.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems like a lot of work to get a few numbers, but I learned a lot about economic impact,\u201d Kaplan said. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize when you buy something how far that money really goes, how the company takes that, spends it elsewhere, and it creates a snowball effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaplan considered his 16-week research project to be just the tip of the iceberg. He hoped his results would prompt IWU Athletics to conduct a full-scale economic impact survey based on expenditure and revenue data from all 22 teams, in order to better grasp the extent to which the department is contributing to Bloomington-Normal\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
Assistant Athletic Director Tony Bankston \u201991, along with other IWU Athletics administrators, took interest in Kaplan\u2019s work. Bankston, who attended Kaplan\u2019s research presentation, was impressed by his ability to merge a passion for sports from the field to the classroom. \u201cI think we always talk about how our mission in the Athletics Department is to mesh the academic and the athletic experience, to make it as seamless as possible, to provide the student the opportunity to be as successful as possible on both ends of the spectrum,\u201d Bankston said. \u201cIt\u2019s neat when you see a project like this, that literally brings those two worlds together.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Congratulations, Ryan!<\/p>\n
Read this article in the IWU Campus Weekly here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ryan Kaplan \u201918 combined his knowledge of finance\u00a0 as an economics major with his experience as a student-athlete to reveal the multi-million dollar economic impact of IWU\u2019s Department of Athletics on the Bloomington-Normal community. While examining the various expenditures and … Continue reading