Economic Impact of Butler in the final four

Yahoo! has an article about how much money Indy will lose by having Butler. Some sports economists say Indianpolis' gross final four income will reduced by a quarter because hometown Butler is playing. However, in another article it states that Butler only has 660 student tickets.

In other words, very few of those people attending the game are guaranteed to be local.

A look at the other teams:

• Michigan State - 4.5 hours away
  
• West Virginia - 6 hours away
  
• Duke - 10 hours away
  

All are close enough to be a possible road trip, but far enough away to probably require an overnight stay. The students at these schools could easily decide on a spontaneous trip to the final four - even if they don't have tickets. This would add to the additional local revenue.

Also, the fact that Butler is a small school means that their impact will be less than if UCLA made it to the Final four in L.A. Even if every Butler student attended the game, they wouldn't come close to filling half the stadium.

Students, however, tend to be poor and often priced out of the tickets. The well-healed alumni would be the main source of school-specific ticket purchases. From the Butler Post graduate survey, about 45% of graduates had a first job in the Indianapolis metro area. That leaves more than half the alumni in other areas. For these alums, a trip to a local final four may lead to more money spent. They may take in a game, then spend some time taking in the campus and reminiscing on the other sites of town.

A good local population supporting the home team can also benefit the town. An upbeat, happening sports scene could leave a positive vibe on the visitors and encourage more spending and even repeat visits.

Many of the out of town visitors already had tickets long before the teams were announced. They are unlikely to change their plans because a local team came along. A big chunk of local residents would also probably snap up tickets regardless of the teams. Now, you'll just have local Butler fans instead of local Kansas fans buying the tickets.