Economic Impact

A trio of annual Baltimore events - Artscape, the book festival and the New Year's celebration at the Inner Harbor - generated an estimated $36 million in economic benefits during the past year, according to the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts. The estimate, to be released Monday, is part of a more sophisticated effort to attract additional corporate sponsors and justify continued public subsidies for the events. "The impact [of the three events], regionally, is huge," said Bill Gilmore, executive director of BOPA, a private, nonprofit organization that works exclusively for the city.

The once financially-troubled Bon Secours Baltimore Health System now contributes $226.3 million to the city's economy, a new analysis has found. The analysis, done by Richard Clinch, director of Economic Research at the Jacob France Institute at the University of Baltimore, looked at the economic impact of the hospital's direct services and indirect effects.  It found that Bon Secours supports 1,532 jobs that provide $94 million in annual compensation.

City officials are calling the Baltimore Grand Prix an economic success, but a new study conducted for the city's tourism arm suggests that it funneled far less money to local businesses than race organizers predicted. The report for Visit Baltimore, released Friday, estimates that spectators from outside the Baltimore region, non-local vendors and race promoters spent almost $28 million in and near the city during the Labor Day weekend event. Baltimore Racing Development, the financially beleaguered race organizer, issued its own report last year that projected about $70 million in race-fueled spending.

Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, who is up for reelection this year, began airing the second in a series of television advertisements Tuesday, this one focused on the economic impact of his efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay. The ad, titled “Oysternomics,” features the senator working on an oyster boat as a narrator explains that “by helping restore thousands of acres of oyster beds, he kept hundreds of oystermen on the job.” The narrator goes...

Baltimore's new baseball stadium might advance downtown development and polish the state's international image. But the lasting economic impact on the region is tougher to estimate and will depend on the ability of Oriole Park at Camden Yards to keep fans coming back year after year.State officials predict the stadium will act as a magnet, luring fans from a wide area to spend money at attractions such as the Inner Harbor and National Aquarium. It also will add to the region's quality of life, helping to persuade businesses to move plants and offices here, the officials predict.

Profits and losses have yet to be counted. But among the businesses that had hoped to capitalize on the crowds at the first Baltimore Grand Prix, it's clear that there have been winners and losers. Room bookings exceeded the expectations of some hoteliers, but left others disappointed. Business was brisk at some restaurants and bars, but the crowds bypassed others. The three-day event drew larger-than-usual crowds to downtown Baltimore on the ordinarily sleepy Labor Day weekend, but concerns about congestion seemed to chase some people away from the city.

Baltimore officially kicked off its cruise season yesterday with the Crown Dynasty's departure for Bermuda, launching a year that will more than double the 1999 sailings from the port of Baltimore. "Baltimore is becoming a destination," said Harriett Sagel, manager of tourism development for the Maryland Port Administration. "We're very excited." There will be 21 cruises out of Baltimore this year, compared with 10 last year, Sagel said. Those cruises are expected to generate an economic impact of $8 million for the city and state, according to estimates by the port administration.

HABITAT FOR Humanity is one of the quintessential feel-good nonprofit groups. After all, few things are more basic than providing shelter to those who need it. Even former President Jimmy Carter has made working with Habitat one of his principal volunteer activities. Mike Mitchell isn't interested in erasing that image, just adding to it. Mitchell is the executive director of Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity, a group whose activities theoretically encompass Baltimore and Baltimore County but practically have been concentrated to date in the modest-to-struggling Northeast neighborhoods of Waverly, Better Waverly and Pen Lucy.

State officials are looking for a site to build a first-class venue for national and international equestrian events, a place they envision as a major tourist destination for horse lovers. The Maryland Horse Park would sit on at least 500 acres. The complex would include a 5,000-seat arena, an outdoor amphitheater for competitions, up to 1,200 horse stalls, even a museum celebrating the history and traditions of horses in the state and perhaps a retirement home for famous racehorses. "Essentially it's a Disneyland for horses," said Rob Burk, executive director of the Maryland Horse Industry Board, part of the Department of Agriculture.

ECONOMIC IMPACT They start pouring in at 5:30 in the evening, eager for a beer, a burger and a seat in view of the glowing stadium across the street. Max's Taphouse is booming. It must be game night at Oriole Park. Baseball is the lifeblood of the West Pratt Street bar in the shadow of Camden Yards. Owner Ron Furman figures the sport accounts for 70 percent of his business there. "We need another major league team like we need a hole in the head," he said. Economists debate whether stadiums are truly economic engines.

Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, who so far appears to be in a strong position to win a second term this year, began airing his first in a series of television ads today touting his accomplishments in Congress. The first spot, which will run on broadcast television in Baltimore and on cable in the Washington suburbs, focuses on Cardin's successful effort to guarantee dental benefits for patients covered under the federal Children's Health Insurance program. The legislation came in response to a 12-year-old Prince George's County boy who died in 2007 after an infection from an abscessed tooth spread to his brain.

It's hard to argue that more transparency isn't called for in planning for another Baltimore Grand Prix ("Officials mum on Grand Prix selection process," Jan. 10). As Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke points out, "We lost a lot of taxpayers' money," and this taxpayer doesn't want to see that happen again. I have no doubt that the process being followed by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is legal, but that does not ensure that it will be either prudent or responsible. The mayor should, at a minimum, be willing to tell us how decisions are being made.

Baltimore City's current financial distress is caused in large part by the bleeding of population to surrounding counties and elsewhere and the exodus of Baltimore based businesses that have followed the population migration. A financially successful Grand Prix would have given the city a much needed lift. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. While Pittsburgh-based Forward Analytics estimated that the economic impact for the city was $47 million, far less than expected, a UMBC sports economics professor estimated that the race prompted only about $15 million in additional spending.

City officials are calling the Baltimore Grand Prix an economic success, but a new study conducted for the city's tourism arm suggests that it funneled far less money to local businesses than race organizers predicted. The report for Visit Baltimore, released Friday, estimates that spectators from outside the Baltimore region, non-local vendors and race promoters spent almost $28 million in and near the city during the Labor Day weekend event. Baltimore Racing Development, the financially beleaguered race organizer, issued its own report last year that projected about $70 million in race-fueled spending.

Baltimore Grand Prix attendees spent as much as $25 million — far short of the $70 million projected by race organizers, according to an economic impact survey released this week. In their report , two Maryland professors also found about three-quarters of attendees came from Maryland and estimated that $10 million of the spending on restaurants and other entertainment over that Labor Day weekend would have happened even without the races as a draw. "Based on our survey information, the Baltimore Grand Prix was certainly not a game-changer," Dennis Coates, a professor of economics at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and Michael T. Friedman of the School of Public Health at University of Maryland College Park wrote in their report.

If Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has one regret about the Baltimore Grand Prix, it would probably be her use of the phrase "game changer" to describe the event's impact on Baltimore. Given the magnitude of the city's problems and the fleeting nature of the race, that kind of promise set up a level of expectation that three days of cars zooming around the Inner Harbor could not possibly meet. That, essentially, is the point of a new study by Dennis Coates, a professor of economics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Michael T. Friedman of the University of Maryland's School of Public Health.

Acknowledging that its method of calculating the economic impact of the Baltimore Convention Center overstated that impact, the state has adjusted its formula to provide a range of estimates. Now, instead of offering a single estimate, the Maryland Department of Budget and Management is reporting that the convention center's economic impact was between $227 million and $565 million in the 2002 fiscal year. For years, the state has boasted of huge economic benefits generated by the convention center.

There is no doubt that Maryland's fiscal situation is a mess, and many who believe that slots will fix the problem have emphasized the state share of the gross revenues. But focusing on gross revenues will overstate the benefits of slots to the state treasury, perhaps by a large amount. It's the net economic impact that matters. A casino is really just a store where people buy gambling, and the principles of economics apply to gambling just as they apply to other goods and services. To focus on just one reason that the distinction between gross and net impact is important, we can compare the economic impact of casinos on the state economy to a simple example of the effects on a local economy when a new megastore, like a Wal-Mart, opens in a small town.

What a bunch of grumpy gills we have in this town. What a bunch of whine lovers. Baltimore just played host to an amazing weekend event, unlike anything seen here since mustachioed men rebuilt downtown after the Great Fire of 1904. And what do we get? Drizzly rain on the parade. It's suggested that neither the crowds nor the TV audiences were as big as the promoters say. Not all the hotels sold out - the one on Fayette Street was only 90 percent of capacity. Sales of steamed crabs at a restaurant a mile away were slow.

Profits and losses have yet to be counted. But among the businesses that had hoped to capitalize on the crowds at the first Baltimore Grand Prix, it's clear that there have been winners and losers. Room bookings exceeded the expectations of some hoteliers, but left others disappointed. Business was brisk at some restaurants and bars, but the crowds bypassed others. The three-day event drew larger-than-usual crowds to downtown Baltimore on the ordinarily sleepy Labor Day weekend, but concerns about congestion seemed to chase some people away from the city.