Motorsports add $5.9 billion to N.C. economy, Belk College professors report

Belk College economics professors John Connaughton and Ron Madsen recently completed a study for the North Carolina Motorsports Research Project to assess the economic impact and occupational makeup of the North Carolina motorsports industry. Download the full report.

This report is a follow-up to the study Connaughton and Madsen conducted in 2004,which found that motorsports generated $5 billion of economic impact on the North Carolina economy in 2003. In addition, the industry supported over 24,000 high quality jobs. To access the 2004 report, please click here.

Connaughton and Madsen’s new report is based on data collected for the motorsports industry in North Carolina for the 2005 calendar year;it provides an update on the economic impact as well as a two-year growth analysis. In addition, this study also adds occupational breakdowns of the various sectors within the motorsports industry and provides educational requirements within the occupations by motorsports sector.

The 2005 impact levels show significant growth, withan rise in the total motorsports output impact on the state economy of more than $827 million, a 16.3 percent increase over the two-year period.

The industry’s adjusted real growth rate of 5.75 percent per year was significantly larger than the overall real rate of growth for the state economy (3.4%) over the same two-year period.

Among the state’s economic-development regions, the Charlotte Regional Partnership reaps the largest economic impact of the motorsports industry. This region had just under $2.9 billionin direct output expenditures in 2005, and the total output impact on the region was over $4.5 billion. Even in the economic development region with the smallest direct motorsports output impact, Research Triangle Partnership, the motorsports total 2005 output impact exceeded $73 million.