Worth Noting

As Peter Kinder and supporters of the Tour of Missouri make a final push for public funding to fill the hole left by Kinder's refusal or inability to find corporate sponsors, it's worth noting that Kinder and TOM, Inc. have still not released the full data to justify their economic impact claims. 

You can submit a Sunshine request if you'd like to review the topline data, or you can read a scanned version here.  But don't bother trying Kinder's website or the Tour of Missouri website, and don't expect to find a breakdown in that report of how those big numbers were created. 

The $38 million guestimate about the economic impact impact of the 2009 race comes from a vendor hired by the Tour of Missouri, Inc., and doesn't fare well under scrutiny. There has been no analysis of tax receipts in local communities or by the state. This overall figure frequently cited by Kinder and TOM supporters was created by multiplying what they believed to typical spectator spending by the total number of people they thought were at each stage of the race. A breakdown of that process may be found here. 

For instance, the company hired by TOM to produce the estimate believed that 71,000 people watched the race in Jefferson City (!).  They then multiplied that total by what they believed the average spectator would have shucked out, and announced that the City of Jefferson benefited from $5,410,128 in economic activity on a Thursday afternoon last summer. Right. 

Indeed, numerous local officials have challenged the numbers from Kinder and his team in recent years.

• Cape Girardeau. A spokesman for the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau, along with local Tour organizers, estimated that the race brought more than $314,000 dollars raced into the city.  The official TOM study, however, states that $2,000,223 was spent by race spectators in the city-- more than six times what local businesses reported.
• St. Joseph. The Executive Director of the St. Joseph Visitors Bureau and Commission expressed doubts in October. The race’s economic impact to host cities wasn’t worth the cost, she said. "It’s just a whole lot of work for 15 minutes."
• Columbia. The Tribune reported in November that local officials found the economic gain "questionable."
• Springfield. In October, the CEO of the Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau said youth soccer tournaments and a PBR bull riding competition drew more overnight stays than the 2008 Tour of Missouri.
• Branson. The CEO of the Branson Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce (who happens to be a Republican donor) said his area also did not get a positive economic impact for its $70,000-plus investment. "We saw this not as much as a sporting event but a PR campaign" and Branson officials "would have to think long and hard about submitting another bid" to become a host city in 2010.

And yesterday, KSPR reported that Springfield taxpayers lost money the last time they hosted a stage in the race.