The Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) has announced the tournament’s economic impact across the region. The fifth edition in 2017, which took place between August 4 and September 9, created a total economic impact of US$ 95,122,465 across six nations in the Caribbean and in the USA.
This figure has been arrived at by using organizer spend, visitor spend and media value and was calculated for Hero CPL by world-renowned researchers, SMG Insight.
In addition to that economic impact figure the Hero CPL directly involved 2710 local personnel in the seven countries where the tournament took place and filled 33,503 hotel rooms during the 2017 event. The amount of money that was spent by visitors who came to watch Hero CPL matches has increased 161% since 2014.
The value for the seven tournament locations in terms of media exposure was US$ 22,890,940. The global audience for the tournament has increased 12% compared to those that watched the event in 2016.
PROVIDENCE, GUYANA – JULY 18: Guyana Amazon Warriors posse during a match between Barbados Tridents and Guyana Amazon Warriors as part of week 4 of the Caribbean Premier League 2015 at Guyana National Stadium on July 18, 2015 in Providence, Guyana. (Photo by Randy Brooks/CPL)
The Hero CPL spent US$ 12,690,910 across the seven tournament locations. This organiser spend represents an 84% increase from what was invested for the tournament in 2014 and the amount of money that the Hero CPL spends across the region continues to increase year-on-year.
Speaking about the report from SMG Insight the Hero CPL Chief Executive Officer, Damien O’Donohoe, said: “This is a really strong set of economic impact results for the region and we are delighted with how we continue to grow as a tournament. We are hugely proud of how much the Hero CPL puts back into the countries that we visit and we are very grateful to the governments and fans that help us make that happen. While 2017 has been fantastic we are firmly committed to increasing our economic impact in 2018.”
In terms of the share of the pie, Guyana hosted four preliminary matches in mid-August and raked in more than US$14,000,000 while Trinidad and Tobago’s economy was bumped up by a whopping US$23.6M. However, the twin island republic hosted nine matches in all comprising five preliminary matches at the historic Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain and the finals week with four matches including the championship match taking place at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba.
In a recent interview with Guyana Times Sport, Chief Operating Officer of CPL Pete Russell said that in 2018 there is a strong possibility that five matches involving local franchise the Guyana Amazon Warriors will be played in Guyana in two phases; three at the start of the six-team tournament and two towards the back-end.
In terms of revenue, this equates to a bigger cut of the earnings in the next season including more job creation and more hotel rooms being occupied and for perhaps for longer.
The sixth edition of the tournament which is dubbed as “the biggest party in sport” will bowl off early in August with the first match set for Providence. Hosts Trinbago Knight Riders are the defending champions.
