Assembly Standing Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, and Tourism

I want to say good afternoon. I want to call the Committee on Arts, Entertainment and Sports and Tourism Committee to order in the Hearing Room 444. I want to thank everyone for gathering with us. We will be hearing the impacts of events on gathering of California tourism.

Let me start by thanking the panel in advance for their attendance, for their participation for today's hearing, realizing that you could be anywhere else. We thank you very much for your cutting out time and being part of this very important discussion.

We are grateful for your expert testimonies and your expert perspectives that will be added to our conversation on the state's tourism. I look forward to. So I had it you could hear me the first time, right? Okay.

Okay. I think I was losing my mind up here. Okay. We are grateful for your expert testimony here today and your perspective that you will give in adding to our conversation on the state of tourism.

I look forward to hearing more about the benefits and your experience by California cities when they get to host these venues and these various sizes and activities that are coming up. We're absolutely excited that California certainly will be highlighted in so many positive ways.

I also want to thank the team for help organizing to my right, to my left and those who are not here. Thank you very much for help gathering these great expert witnesses and putting this hearing on. I want to also recognize our Rules Committee, our Sergeants, our Capitol support offices for making it possible.

So thank you very, very much. We are very excited to get started with these topics today hearing especially regarding the large international events that are absolutely significant that will be coming to our State of California, the Golden State. Some of these includes All Star games, Super Bowl, the World Cup, and also LA '28.

But it is also important for us to recognize and learn more about the impacts that small events and gatherings will have on the state's economy and especially the host cities. So this robust conversation, we want to do a deep dive in this particular area, especially with our host cities, which are very, very important.

These types of events may include concerts, conventions, conferences, athletic competitions, various levels, including colleges and other kinds of activities. We are going to have a very good panel who will testify to that end, and also we'll have taking questions from Members who will be joining us today and they'll be making their way down here.

We also want to note that Mr. Lackey is not feeling well and wouldn't be with us today. So we hope that he has speedy recovery for him. We will also be setting aside time at the conclusion of the panels for the public to come comment and to weigh in.

So we will give you an opportunity to weigh in on your perspective on what's been shared here today thus far. So we're excited about the public participation in this hearing.

This hearing offers an opportunity for the Members of this Committee and their staffs to learn more about the resources that's going into hosting and planning events on various sizes.

We also hope to hear about the impact on our economy, including the employment, the workers for the various venues that surround the businesses and how the Legislature can actually come on and support again. California will certainly be the focus for the next five years.

And so this is a partnership that we want to explore and how we can be very, very supportive of our businesses to make sure that our economy continue to grow. But also those visitors will have a wonderful time being in California.

The Members of this body have dedicated a lot of time and resources to supporting our state's travel and tourism industry. The Legislature did as much as we could to help the industry recover from COVID-19 pandemic. We have seen very meaningful of their jobs and opportunities for workers that tourism and related businesses that provides.

It's important that we all have a conversation together to making sure that we move out a plan that makes sense, but also is very, very supportive with the work that we have ahead of us.

I think we have an exciting hearing lined up today where we will be hearing from, again, a variety of organizations, representatives from the regions across the state that are directly involved in the impact by bringing these events and gatherings to California. I am looking forward to the robust conversation, also the presentations that we will have.

So with no further ado, I want to invite the very first panel up. You know who you are, so you can start making your way to the table. The first panel will be, we have everyone joining us. Great. We will have an overview of the tourist industry and bringing events to California.

I want to thank you very much for taking time out of your schedule. And then please introduce yourselves and the industry in which you represent and then please proceed with the presentation.

Thank you, chair Gipson and Members who are hopefully watching virtually.

And they can hear you, too.

Yes. My name is Emellia Zamani. I am the Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy for the California Travel Association. We are the advocacy organization representing the travel and tourism industry in California.

And I do have a brief deck that I'll just use. This is our vision and mission. You know, we are the influential and unified and most powerful advocacy voice for the tourism industry in California, and we protect and advance the industry's interests. Our members include destinations, lodging attractions. Next slide, please.

Our Members include destinations, lodging attractions, airports, airlines, transportation companies and small businesses throughout the state. This just gives you a little slice of who my membership is comprised of, with the biggest part of our membership being the destinations themselves.

Whether it's visit Sacramento, San Diego, tourism all the way up to Mendocino, we work very closely with, but are distinct from Visit California. If you can go to the next slide, please. So CalTravel is primarily business to business, while Visit California is business to consumer driven. And they couldn't be with us today.

So I'm sort of our, I'm wearing two hats. I'm CalTravel and Visit California. Not to confuse you, but Visit California markets the state as a world class leisure destination while CalTravel engages with all of you and the Administration to protect and advance the industry.

Other key differences, they are industry assessment driven and we are membership and sponsorship driven. We're a nonprofit, as are they, but we just have very different business models and, you know, missions. But we work hand in hand, and the industry has gone through a lot. These last five years that I've been the advocate at CalTravel

We were pretty much decimated by COVID-19. We lost nearly half of our 1.2 million tourism jobs. We had a 59% decline in visitor spending, and 52.1% decline in state and local tax revenue.

You can see this little chart that shows you how all our gains of 10 years had plummeted because of turning off business.

We knew we had to do it, but it was really detrimental, especially to Visit California's funding because they rely on business industry assessments. Thankfully, and I'll talk about that a little bit, visitor spending has now come back in a major way.

We increased by 5.6% from 2022 to 2023, and we're back to pre pandemic levels and actually bested pre pandemic levels of visitor spending, job numbers and tax revenue. Last year, visitors spent $150.4 billion in California businesses spending that supported 1.2 million jobs and generated $12.7 billion in state and local tax revenue.

Visit California's latest forecast expects spending to grow to $157 billion next year. And this relatively quick recovery would not have happened if you all hadn't banded together to help us secure that funding for Visit California's marketing campaigns in order to get us out of the pandemic.

As we move forward, the industry is looking for ways to remain competitive as a destination and increase our economic impact. You know, we are seeing some softening in travel as that revenge travel has taken place. International travel hasn't totally come back yet as we're seeing really long visa approval wait times.

Inbound travel from Asia isn't back to where it was pre pandemic. So, as well as we have done, we can do even better in economic impact in those segments.

The other thing that we're seeing, we're at a bit of a competitive disadvantage, and we'll talk about that more when I pass the torch on to my colleagues here, is you know, the event space. Right. Which is why we're here.

We've had recent successes in capturing large events that benefit the whole region that they're in by creating jobs, bringing in visitors, and generating tax revenue. But we are falling behind 23 other states that have dedicated state run funds for bidding on and hosting events, with about a dozen of these being created in the last few years.

Without a similar funding source, California is at a competitive disadvantage and losing business to these other states, which, again, Nathan and Anthony will talk about. We're getting these once in a lifetime events, right? LA is coming, is getting the Olympics back for the third time.

But what you're not hearing about is the smaller business, smaller events that are going elsewhere because of the incentives other states are offering that their state funds are making possible.

So while we're sensitive to California's current budget deficit, we're trying to think of ways we can accomplish the goal of creating an event fund at the state level in a way that would make an impactful outcome for all Californians.

Laying the groundwork for support now to create a revolving fund to bring more events to California and along with it, more jobs, spending and revenue is really what we're looking for from all of you, and we look forward to continuing that work. Thank you so much.

Thank you. I will ask you a question when it's time to ask questions about what those other states are doing, and at the level those states are doing it at. Okay. So it's given some kind of perspective in terms of what they're doing to remain competitive and take our productivity and support away.

Yeah. And I think the three of us will be able to answer those or find the right answers. And I will say one other thing- as beautiful as California is, just having a great state isn't going to be enough to capture that business.

So being beautiful just won't get you into the.

It's not all brain, it's not all beauty. Okay. We need a few other insights.

Thank you very much for that.

You're welcome. Next, Anthony, who's next?

Next, Anthony, who's next?

I'm Anthony Brennaman. You guys can hear me? Okay. I'm Anthony Brennaman. I am the Executive Director of the Orange County Sports Commission. So I am fortunate enough to look over 3 million people of Orange County from small destinations, all the way up to large destinations.

So coming with a variety of perspectives, Nate and I will actually be tag teaming this conversation slideshow together. So I'll give the torch to Nate to introduce himself.

Awesome. I'm Nathan Kopp, Vice President of Sports San Diego. So, we are the Sports Commission, representing the San Diego, county, trying to bring new events to the destination.

Next slide.

It speaks to the people in a language that they understand. Sport can create hope where there was previously only despair. And that's from Nelson Mandela. He spoke about that. And I believe it was in the early 1990s, after the apartheid actually fell. I believe it was 94, and they actually went after the Rugby World Cup.

So some folks might have seen the movie invictus, and specifically it talked about how the Rugby World Cup, which they're fanatics about, brought the community together, broke down a lot of barriers that were in the way and also to the economic power and success that it overall had for South Africa.

He's one of the politicians I very much look up to. So any kind of words that I do see from him, understanding the industry that we come from and how it can relate back is something that I always like to share with other people. Next slide, please.

So, the California Sports Coalition. So who are we and what do we do? So right now, we're a group of statewide sports commissions, venues, teams, destination marketing organizations. Many of us are part of the Cal Travel Association. We are operating as a collective voice for sports tourism when it comes to anything in California. We're a Committee that currently is underneath Cal Travel.

We were very fortunate enough that they took us underneath their wing to help and support us and our overall mission and message. When I first moved out to this beautiful state about nine years ago, a lot of people know that California has hosted plenty of events.

We've had plenty of Olympians and professional athletes come from this, you know, it's beautiful state. However, sports tourism wasn't something that a lot of people were experienced in. So whether that comes to destinations, venues, et cetera, it was what is sports tourism? What do we do?

It was definitely a missing link here that myself, Nate, and some of the other destinations and sports commissions said, we have to get together as a statewide voice to represent ourself on that national scale level when we work together to be more powerful.

So one of our main goals is to create a statewide event fund, to help us be more competitive against. There's 23 other states right now that we'll get into.

There's about to be 25 at the end of this year that have state funds right now, as well as continue to advocate for sports tourism, teach people about what it is, how it contributes to the California economy, and then that social and cultural dynamic that makes us human, and then also to educating those destinations that aren't as experienced in sports tourism.

You might be a destination that says, well, we don't really do sports, but everybody can do sports. It might be a specific sport. But going back to what Chairman Gibson was saying at the beginning and in his preface, we were talking about Super Bowls and World Cup and all those mega events that are coming to town.

I challenge every destination to look at what is your Super bowl? You know, what is your World Cup? Because that might be what LA's and San Francisco's are.

But you know, if you're the Fresno of the world, if you're the Laguna beaches of the world, if you're the Monterey's of the world, you know, what is your Super bowl that you could bring to town that is going to have put your destination on the map, but then also bring those tangible benefits that will be coming in as well? Next slide, please.

So we talk about our supporters, and that was as many as we could fit into the slide right there. But we have 80 plus organizations counting across the state that are supporting what we're doing.

Our coalition that are part of the coalition that support the grant Fund, as well as some of the other endeavors that we're going down. Some of the ones that you can see up there are destination marketing organizations that are self explanatory from the big destinations of the state.

But then also those pro sports teams as well, too, that see the value in what we're doing. We also have airports, ports that also would benefit from this tremendously, that do see a lot of business.

The thing about sports and mega events or events in General is you have that trickle-down economics in a lot of ways that touches all these different market segments, and they would see tremendous benefits to supporting a major events Fund. Next slide, please.

I'll jump in here. So sports ETA is our trade Association for Sports tourism nationally here in the United States. Sports ETA breaks down the key players into three different segments for sports tourism. So first, our destinations, that's who Anthony and I represent. Sometimes that's within an independent sports Commission, a nonprofit. Sometimes that's a CVB, like visit Sacramento.

And then for smaller destinations that could be within a Chamber of Commerce or parks and rec district as part of a city government. The second category are rights holders. Rights holders are the ones that own the rights to host events. There are large ones, like the NCAA, that host thousands of events every year.

And there are also small mom and pop tournament operators that are looking for destinations to host their events. The third is industry partners. So industry partners are really everyone else. Our venues, our hotels, our transportation companies, airports. Everyone else that is impacted by sports tourism is in that third category. Next slide.

So sports ETA does a survey. Every single year they survey their 1000 Members that make up the sports tourism landscape, and then at the end of the year, they publish a State of the industry report. So they've done this for about 10 years, and it's got progressively better over the years.

They're asking more questions and diving more into the information of what is the sports tourism landscape across the country. Next slide.

So as we go into this report on the next few slides, it's important to understand the types of events they're looking at. So one are participation based events. So these are youth tournaments.

These are adult recreation tournaments, where the majority of the travel are done by the participants that are participating in the event. The second are spectator sports. These are professional sports, collegiate sports, where people are buying tickets and traveling to go watch these sports events.

So those are the two types of events that they're looking at in this study. So State of the industry 2019, prior to the pandemic, was the previous high water mark for the amount of travelers going to sports events annually.

So it increased, I think every year of the, there was 179 million travelers who traveled to a sports event in 2019. With the onset of the pandemic, you saw a very large decrease there, 48% year over year in 2020, but a really quick bounce back in 2021, 82% increase.

What I thought was particularly impactful on this slide is that in 2022, we already had more people traveling to sports events than we did in 2019. So the travel and tourism economy is made up of a lot of different verticals, a lot of different sectors.

Not all of them bounce back as quickly as sports, particularly for those small and middle sized markets. They were hosting sports events sometimes before they're able to host conventions.

So, I'm sorry, what do you account for that from 2019 to 2022? What do you account for that spike or them coming back?

Yeah, I think there's a couple things at play. I think, one, that you could host a sports event safely outdoors with social distancing before you could host indoor conventions and things like that. So I think that was part of it.

I also think the sports industry is booming right now, and more organizers are hosting events, more events are coming to America, and there's a trickle-down effect of regional events and statewide events that are impacting the number of travelers going to the E-sports events.

And just to interject, apologize also too, I would attribute that people are cooped up during that time. And if you have kids and little Johnny's not playing soccer and he's at home all day and he's annoying you, it's like, hey, when we can get him back outside, let's get him back outside and playing.

Cause there was a lot of parents out there, especially on the youth participation side that we were talking about that really, really were pushing like, hey, I wanna get my kids back out there and playing. I mean, we had usually tournaments, let's say youth tournaments that we would host here in California, more of a local, regional level.

We're actually going and playing, like in Arizona because Covid didn't exist there at some point and playing games there. So they were just trying to get their kids out.

We even saw that too with some of the Native American reservations too, as well, where it was like, oh, we can actually be there and not have to listen to certain Covid guidelines. So some of it, I think was just people pent up over time that it was like, let's get out. Let's start doing stuff again.

But go ahead. Sorry.

Next slide. So very similar to the amount of travelers going to sports events, the billions in sports related travel mirrors a very similar path. So a deep dive in 2020, quick bounce back in 2020. 16 percent increase over a five year period. There's an interesting article a couple weeks ago from lounge Pass.

So they operate the lounges at airports and things like that. They actually project sports tourism to lead growth over the next decade and become a $1 trillion industry by 2032. So massive, massive increase over the next decade. Next slide.

So the State of the industry polled destinations, as you can see across the board, small, medium, large, all destinations are hosting more events now in 2023 than they were in 2021. Next slide.

And it takes two to put on a sports event. So similarly, rights holders, the event owners, are also hosting more events.

Great growth at the $1 million plus level. So these bigger events are hosting more of them on a more regular basis. Next slide.

So as we zoom out and we talk about the impact of sports tourism, a lot of articles and media picks up the total economic impact or direct spending, but there really is a halo effect.

There are jobs that are created, there are tax revenues to local municipalities, to state governments that are generated from these events. So these are some very staggering numbers on the slide of what the national landscape is for sports tourism.

So for the first time in the State of the industry report, they actually asked rights holders, how do you select what destination you're going to? So this slide was pretty surprising to me, even though it probably shouldn't be.

So representing San Diego, we hear all the time from rights holders that we have a great location, we have great offerings. People love being in San Diego. They love going to the zoo, they love going to the beaches. But those first two on that slide are really, really impactful.

So they can't afford to come to San Diego a lot of times and we don't have enough incentives to get them across the finish line to host our event in San Diego. So whether it's venue costs or hotel costs, it's an expensive destination and not every rights holder is able to host their event. Next slide.

Also, for the first time, they broke down the State of the industry by states, which I thought was particularly interesting. They had never done this before. So California, we are, you know, have more people than any other state in the country, but we actually are behind Florida and Texas and total economic impact from sports events.

We'll get into the statewide funding discussion a little bit later with Anthony, but Florida and Texas both have large statewide funds that help bring events to those destinations, and we do not here in California. Next slide.

So we talk about what we're missing out on. So some of those bullet points, as I'll talk about small and mid sized destinations are being left behind. Plenty of bigger events we do get on occasion here. It still is very competitive to get them. They need help.

But also, too, we have to talk about those small and mid sized events where they're not even having a chance to go after some of those events because they don't have the corporate sector support that you might have in a major city. They don't have the tax baits that you might have in a major city.

So a lot of them are getting left behind, particularly against Florida and Texas and then also sharing the wealth across the state. As I mentioned before, too, we look at our major metropolitan areas that we want to continue to support, but coming from Orange County, you know, Anaheim is kind of our big juggernaut.

But then some of our other smaller destinations, you know, we need to share that wealth of bringing in events to them, too, as well.

They all have their own tax systems that they benefit from, but a lot of times if we're just going to be funneling in one particular way, it's not necessarily kind of spreading it out to all of the destinations that need it and can benefit from it. And then those valuable tax revenues.

So you're talking about sales tax, you're talking about gasoline tax, the hotel tax. All those are taxes that are benefiting both on the local level but also the state level.

That is a tremendous amount of money that we're just leaving on the table, putting cities, counties, venues under too much stress to carry the financial risk and burden for those major events. So looking at those major metropolitan areas, the Las, the Bay Areas, they're carrying a heavy load on their own.

So you might look at it as, oh, well, okay, maybe they're hosting a Super bowl, but they have to come up with $35 million on their own. That's a lot of money to come up with, especially, too, if you're going to be doing it, let's say, every four or five years.

So it's putting a tremendous amount of stress on those big cities, too, as well, to come up with some kind of price tag. And then we're looking at, you know, we're losing sight of what events mean to the betterment of our communities.

So something that I'm always going to preach is we're talking a lot about economics, but also, what's that social and cultural impact. We go back to Nelson Mandela. How can we use this to unite our communities?

Is there certain communities around here that we want to express an agenda in a non threatening manner to get everybody together with? You know, I had the privilege. In 2014, I was over in Cleveland, Ohio, contract work, working with their sports Commission, and I worked on something called Gay Games nine.

So it is the world's largest LGBTQ festival. About 25,000 people come into that event. Cleveland traditionally is not somewhere that people are saying they're going to take a vacation to. No offense if anyone here is from Cleveland originally, but it still holds a place in my heart.

But you actually have to host events there for people to come. And during the summertime, hosting events like that made a lot of sense to them. But it's also not traditionally a huge LGBTQ market. It's not a place that is like a San Francisco or an LA of the world that you would go to.

But Cleveland saw that as an opportunity. This was before the Supreme Court decision and ruling on gay marriage, that we can use this to express an agenda, we can use this to unite our communities, to break down doors and barriers, to normalize a lot of things that people were still talking about at that time.

And there's a tremendous amount of success that we've did for the community in the ways of scholarship and ways of how we change people's hearts and minds. And that's the other thing, too, that I always preach about with these sporting events that we're going after and we're hosting.

It's like, what kind of legacy are you going to have? Are you going to leave with this event? Next slide, please.

So going back to what we're missing out on. So on the left hand side there, you see over the past, from 2018 to 2023, you know, we've lost about 100 major sporting events.

And when we talk about those major sporting events or those major destinations, some of the ones that you see up there are, we've been on final, various destinations. We've been on final fours.

The Formula one grand prix that's going on in Vegas right now, actually was has been in high level talks with a couple California communities before they decided to opt to go to Vegas. The world Figure Skating Championships, which is a big deal. And then I think we all remember the Amgen tour of California.

I know we have some partners here from AEG who were figureheads behind that. And that was something going along, touching multiple destinations throughout the state in the summertime that ended up collapsing probably around the COVID timeframe that a lot of communities really, really benefited from.

And then from the small destination standpoint, going back to them, those are like spartan races. USA BMX, national Championships, USU Soccer, USA Volleyball.

I'll use one example, Madera County, where Yosemite is at, you know, talking with their tourism bureau over there, they've said to me, I would love to host a Spartan race because we have all this land. We can put it out here. That's something we can't really do in Orange County because we have houses everywhere.

But if you're going out to Madera, they have tons of land. But guess what? How are they going to pay for the permitting? How are they going to pay for.

They need to shut down roads, and then they're going to have to pay for extra police and security detail, fire detail, something as small, with a small tax base like Madera County, it's like that's hundreds of thousands of dollars that they don't have.

But if they were to host something like that, because they actually have the infrastructure in terms of the space that is needed, that's bringing in tons of people that is going to bring and repay both the local economy and the state economy to do something like that.

So having a grant Fund to tap into would be really beneficial.

So, Anthony, I'm going to ask you at some point based on your example, that community don't have the resources to finance something like that. You mentioned road closures, meaning you mentioned extra first responders, etcetera. How are other states in the same situation are managing to pull it off? So, just simmer on that for a moment.

Yeah, I got an answer. So, next slide. I think. Sorry. Switching around.

So participation rates that we say there, and apologize for the small text, but what we're seeing right there, the black line on the far right, on each of those, on each of the bar graphs is showing the participant rates in sports in this country. So sports rates of participation are up.

It is more people are playing sports, which is good for sports tourism, because they're going to be going to tournaments, they're going to be going out there, they're creating new sports, other sports, too, that are having a movement that you're seeing more of an inclusion in continuing to grow. Next slide, please.

And then this is one of the charts where actually, when you see it going down, it means it's a good thing. So inactivity rates. So the inactivity rates are actually going down, too, as well.

So what you look there from 2018 to 2023, there's been a drop in inactivity rates from, it looks like it was 82.1 million all the way down to 64.9. So within that five year timeframe, people are being more physically active.

Nate actually made a great point to me the other day when we were talking, and in Europe, where you have a little bit more socialized economies where you might have universal healthcare, there's a big push by their governments to say, hey, we want to get people out there and active because that means lower obesity rates, lower rates that they're going to have to pay premiums for when it comes to healthcare costs, there's a huge push that we see in some of those other countries, too, as well.

But here in the US and California in particular, I can speak to not only we have sports fans and fanatics, but I think this next generation that's coming up, it's a big part of their identity and backbone is to be part of some sort of sport. Next slide, please.

Statewide funds. So right now, there are 23 that you can see up there. So those are all the different states. There will be two more that are added at the beginning of 2025.

So about half the states in this country have some sort of Fund that they're able to tap into to help subsidize these sporting events that they're going after subsidizing certain costs there's been a tremendous growth over the last five years. I think it was the stat that you remember off the top of your head.

I think it was like 12 nations.

Went from like 12 to 23 in the span of five years. And there's more coming. More keep adding and adding to it.

And those are states who are putting money aside, right? Do you know how much money they're putting aside?

You know, it ranges. So some states put money aside where it's coming off the General, you know, budget line of $10 million. But then there's other ones that have a self replenishment Fund where there's a way that they actually Fund that thing. So Florida, for example, they actually use license plate programs.

So if you're a fan of the Orlando magic, you pay a fee to have the Orlando magic on your license plate. That fee then goes back to the Florida Sports Foundation. So then that feeds into it, and it keeps building it building and building. So their budget varies.

I mean, if they're winning, if any of their teams are winning Super Bowls or NBA championships, which they probably won't be for quite some time, but nonetheless, it's probably gonna uptick their budget when LeBron James is on the heat. So there's various ways that different states have this funding mechanism. Next slide, please.

California road map. Once again, I am so sorry. There. I was worried about nobody being able to see it, so I will just briefly explain that. So this roadmap that I can provide to anybody in the room afterwards so they can see it better is showing that this is what's coming up in California over the next seven years.

Some of those are. You do have two Super Bowls that are coming, one in the Bay Area, one in Southern California, in Englewood. I know in my backyard down in the Huntington Beach area, we're going to be having the NCAA beach volleyball national championships.

That's a big deal because it's the fastest growing women's sport out there for the NCAA, and it's the first time it will be on the West Coast, and it's only ever been won by USC or UCLA. But it is a national sport, so beach volleyball is big.

And then we're also looking at also in sofa, too, with the World Cup, Levi's stadium also hosting World Cup matches up here in the golden one center. They have a number of NCAA basketball events, both men's and women's. With Nate down in San Diego, anything from the Breeders Cup all the way to New Zealand, All Blacks rugby.

I know I'm missing one or two there, Nate.

But we have NCAA golf championships every year for the next four years and a few other smaller.

So the point of that map is people want to be here. It's California. They want to be here, but they want to make sure that it's affordable and they can actually come into a pro business environment. Next slide, please.

So, trends in women's sports. So it's not a moment, it's a movement. And what we're seeing is, in 2024, the Paris Olympics, it's the first time that there was gender equity. Same number of women as there was men. I think with Title IX, the US is actually a leader when it comes to women's sports compared to some of those other countries. I think California takes that even one step further.

It was actually a California former Governor and President that actually signed Title IX into effect. So, bonus points if anybody knows that one NCAA Final Four had 18.7 million viewers, so that was a 285% increase over 2022.

And then Nebraska women's volleyball, they had 92,000 fans show up for a volleyball match in that stadium that you see right there. So it is opening a completely new doorway that did not exist before that. It's not just about men's sports, it's also women's sports, and they carry as much of an impact. Next slide, please.

So, key stat here. 94% of women who hold C-Suite positions are former athletes. So that's a big deal. We can get into the whole camaraderie, teamwork, participation, all the amazing things that sports do for you here on a local level, too.

But as you invest more in sports, it's going to have more investment into us as a society. Next slide, please.

Yeah, I think this just speaks to the earlier slide that we had about Nelson Mandela, is that we're talking a lot about the economic impact of sports, but there are a lot of other impacts. There's visibility, obviously.

So when a major sports event is happening in California, it could be on a national broadcast, international broadcast, that are drawing eyeballs to our beautiful states and also impacting leisure travel. People see San Diego hosting the farmers insurance open in January, where it's very cold in a lot of the country.

They want to come to San Diego for their next vacation. Health and wellness. We cover that and also civic pride. People, or sports, brings people together from all different types of background, which is something we need more of in society today. Next slide.

As we close out this presentation, we just want to provide a couple quick case study examples of these are sports events that you may or may not have heard of that. Have had huge impacts on our destinations and pretty cool to talk about. So in San Diego, we started talking to the New Zealand All Blacks.

If you're not familiar with rugby, they are the biggest brand in rugby. No offense to South Africa, but New Zealand is bigger and they have a great documentary on Amazon talking about the New Zealand All Blacks culture, how they are the winningest professional sports team by percentage of anyone in the world. They have really fantastic culture.

So we talked about bringing them to San Diego back in 2018, about six years later. We actually made it happen. So we hosted the first regular season match outside of New Zealand ever. So they played in America a couple times. Those are all exhibition preseason matches.

The match we hosted in July was a regular season match against Fiji. The numbers for this event were really, really impactful. 71% of tickets were purchased from outside of San Diego, 50% were purchased from outside of California. So when you talk about the tourism impact an event like this can have, it was massive.

I walked around the stadium, so many different languages being spoken. The stadium, it was a really, really special night. And talking about the trickle-down impact of sports, obviously we have the hotel room night number there. I was at the San Diego Zoo Food and Wine Festival a couple weeks ago.

I was talking to a local brewer there who was exhibiting Cairoa Brewery. He's from New Zealand, said, hey, how did you do with New Zealand All Blacks being in San Diego? He said it was the busiest night of business they've had in six years.

So when you talk about the impacts of something like that, that's a small local brewery in San Diego who set record sales by us bringing this event to San Diego. Next slide.

Hope it back over to me. Last year, last summer in Anaheim, we had the opportunity to host volleyball nations League. So it was eight of the top men's national teams in the world that came to Anaheim, played in our arena over there to compete.

They move around from city to city across the globe, playing in different locations. We had the opportunity to host them. It was broadcast. There was over 27 broadcasters to 70 territories. We sold over 30,000 tickets to it. And traditionally, men's volleyball is not nearly as popular as women's volleyball in the US.

But we still had a huge impact from this event. And then volleyball TV that you see at the bottom there in terms of the out of territory viewership was 276,000. Social media, which has a huge following. It's, I think it's top five sport in the world. Volleyball. You're looking at you know, 120,000 plus audience growth.

You had over 71 million views and then over 100 million social impressions. Why does that matter? It matters because it's putting Anaheim on this pedestal. So we might all know about Anaheim, but guess what? If we're. Here we go. So we might know about Anaheim.

But let's say you live in almighty Kazakhstan, you might not know about Anaheim, and all of a sudden you're logging on to volleyball TV and you see Anaheim and it's getting advertised. The next thing you know, I'm gonna take a trip there.

I'm gonna go spend and patronize my money because, you know, it's home to the happiest place on earth along with many, many other things. It's getting into key markets that people might not know about and using sports as that platform to do it. And the other thing, too, that I'll.

Two other things that I'll mention is, you know, right after this event, too, I had an Anaheim City Council Member call me up and said, hey, you know, Anaheim High School, underprivileged school, under resourced, doesn't have enough money for volleyballs, for their teams. Is there something you can do?

And there was not another foundation in Anaheim, unfortunately, that it really kind of fit their scope to go out there and, you know, get balls. That's something that fell under the Sports Commission. So through our connections through volleyball world, who put this on? They donated all the balls that they played with.

So it was about $2,000 worth of.

I gave money, too. Did he get it?

I think it was after you left. It was actually. It was actually Avelino that called. So. Yeah, and we. It was about $2,000 worth of volleyballs that we donated back then to local Anaheim high schools that they're using to today.

And now, you know, anytime an event is happening, I'm usually getting a call from somebody about, oh, a basketball event's going on. Can you get us balls? So that's the way it happens. Now, the last thing I'll add there, too, before we close this out, and Nate has one more other thing.

One other slide to talk about is this morning I woke up to the news that I did not want to hear, and that news was the NCAA, which bids out all of their championships at once. So you can think of, like, final fours, and in our case, volleyball, because we're a very volleyball centric destination.

We bid on their women's and national championships. So it's about 30,000 people coming to your destination in December that we wanted to bring to Anaheim and either 26 or 27 thought we were a great destination and location for it.

We also were bidding against San Jose and Sacramento, along with peers and counterparts around the country that were also bidding against secret envelope. We don't know about it until 09:00 a.m. this morning. We lose the event to San Antonio, Texas, and Columbus, Ohio. Columbus, Ohio, in December. What's going on there?

San Antonio in the Alamo dome that's 50-60 years old, that sits 70,000 people, but quite frankly, is a dump. And you're not going to come to OC vibe, which is a $4 billion redevelopment project in sunny Southern California.

Something is going on there that we want to make sure that we're not left out again when we go after an opportunity like this, Nate, I'll let you close things out. Yeah. Next slide.

Before you go to the next slide, I want to follow up.

With what you just said, Anthony, what do you think is going on? You just describe where you. They shouldn't have gone, but they're gone. So what do you think is going on?

Essentially what it is, is there's a financial incentive in place to help buy down and subsidize the cost of that venue, or providing the NCAA with money to go to that destination that they're going to be coming out ahead.

So if they're able to provide a venue at zero the cost, because, let's say the state comes in with a grant in Texas and Ohio both have state funds, that they're able to offset those costs.

So the NCAA, on paper, it looks like a much better deal to them to say, I don't have to pay for a venue and I collect 50% of the ticket revenue, and all of a sudden I'm going to make more money based on this.

Why would I go to California then, you know, be in that situation or have to pay higher labor costs or anything else that might come with it. And there's other ways that we can get into after this of how that event, their events funds, works.

It can go to offset, you know, multiple other things like marketing, et cetera, to help promote the event as well as labor. But I'll not take any more time and I'll let Nate finish it and open it up for questions then. Thank you.

The last slide here, we just wanted to highlight also a small destination. So, Placer Valley, not far from here, they have an event center that over a five year period they've hosted 550,000 people, have a $15 to $18 million economic impact from bringing in youth basketball, youth volleyball, these types of events to their destination.

So this is just to illustrate. Yes, sports tourism is important to LA and San Francisco and Orange County and San Diego, but it also impacts places like platform valley and smaller destinations. So this was a, we thought, a great kind of slide to close on of a success story. That's all we have. Thank you.

Thank you very much. We appreciate each of your presentations. So I have a few questions. Before I go to questions, I would like to have my colleague introduce himself and talk about the area in which he represents. And then I'll go and ask some questions.

Mister Avelino, thank you, Mister chair. Happy to be here today. And thank you to the presenters. And then, of course, to our astounding chair for bringing this issue to light. I could not agree with you more. The fact that as California, we should be a destination and folks should be interested in coming to California first and foremost.

The fact that we're losing business, if we will, to other states is unacceptable. And please count me as a supporter moving forward. An Anaheim kid, understanding the value that Anaheim brings to the state when it comes to the sports and entertainment.

I hope that moving forward we have more robust conversations and then we can address these issues a little earlier on to ensure that the business and those events are coming to California.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And I just want to piggyback on something you said. California is California and we have a lot to offer, but we want to stay competitive.

And some of my travels and journeys have been to when people find out that I chair this Committee, they always talk about the sports that are coming to California and they are small businesses. We don't want to be left out. Let me say that again. They don't want to be left out.

So all this prosperity, potential prosperity, is coming to California. And we have all these small businesses. We want to make sure that these small businesses are also benefiting from all the World cups, the Paralympics, etcetera, LA 28. We need to figure out how they can still benefit and be supportive to add to the economy as well.

But my first question is, you made mention of some of the incentives. What are some of the dollar amounts of these incentives that these states are putting to the side? You talked about the license plate. We documented that as a way of trying to create revenue.

We don't know how much revenue we can create in what period of time, but what other incentives have they given? They just move money from the General Fund and bam, there it is. So can you talk about what you know?

Yeah. And Amelia did a pretty deep dive, so I'll let her.

Yeah. The state that I have seen brought up as the example the most in my research on this is Texas. I think they were the first ones to do an event Fund, and they actually have three. They have a major event Fund, a regular event Fund and then a motocross specific.

I did not do a deep dive into why that needs its own Fund, but isolating the event Fund itself. Part of the process is a destination that's bidding and wants to be considered for. The event Fund must provide an economic impact.

They have to do a complete application and they have to show to the deciding body that there is going to be an incremental increase in revenue, specifically through taxes, to the destination as a result of bringing in event x.

And then they pay back that difference to the Fund and it can go to Fund other events that apply there's a lot of problems with this for a few different reasons. I've heard that the application process, you can kind of fudge the numbers. So being able to have an economic impact calculator that has integrity. Right.

So you can't hack the system to try to make it look like your event is bringing in all this money that it might not, but also the fact that our constitution deals with taxes differently, and you can't earmark local taxes to go back into a state run Fund.

So I don't know all the intimacies, and I can get back to you on exactly what the incentives are in Texas for an event, for their event Fund. But there's other considerations that we need.

To starting to get back, because as we conclude 2024 and look towards 2025, we have a projection what our state budget is going to look like. But we need to make sure that we have funds to be able to support some of these activities that are coming.

We don't want to invite someone to our home and our roof is leaking or there's holes in the walls and things of that nature. We want to show the best of California, and I think we need to really be a strong partner with the business community in this regard. And so it's important that we look at that.

So.

And Chairman. Zero, thanks. Just to also add really quickly, I apologize for cutting anybody off. So in North Carolina, one of the other things they're looking at is putting a fee on sports betting. So as sports betting becomes legal, they put a fee on that that goes back into a special events Fund.

And then something really interesting I threw by Amelia, I was over in Paris, both for the Olympics as well as.

Now you brag he was in Paris. Okay.

It was okay. So being over there, one of the ways they helped Fund the Olympics was they, you know how, like, we have California scratchers, they had a scratcher system, but it was a ticket just for the Olympics.

And that money that was like, let's say it was five euro or something like that, would go back to the Olympics, and then they would encourage people to buy these scratchers, because then that money would go and help offset those costs. I thought that was really innovative by France. It was a national campaign that they did.

We had conversations before by this, and I know California lottery is set up a little bit differently, but just throwing ideas out there of innovation, of there's more than one way to skin this thing.

We also have Proposition 98. I'm not sure how this interferes. Support or don't assume Member Valencia.

Thank you, Mister chair. Can we get some detailed information on the amount types that we're discussing? I think that would be helpful to get a better sense of what work we have to do ahead of us when it comes to budgetary allocations or figuring out funding streams. Thank you.

Yeah, the definition is obviously critical. As I mentioned, Texas is the model, the major events that includes the democratic convention. Some of the broad definitions I think we've kind of agreed on is it can't just be something that is homegrown, necessarily, like Comic Con in San Diego wouldn't count.

That's a homegrown thing, although they are in danger of losing it because of how expensive it is in San Diego to host the event. There's no hotel incentives. And so despite being in San Diego for so long, Comic Con is considering leaving. So some of the event criteria, you know, it has to be competitive.

It has to be like the volleyball, the NCAA volleyball tournament being considered by other states or even other countries to be eligible for this Fund. We're not talking about like a dental Association convention that's deciding between, you know, Anaheim and San Antonio, but some of the bigger things and not the major events. Right.

The La 28 Olympics takes an ungodly amount of money to bid and host. That's not necessarily what we would be talking about in this Fund. This is to try to secure the NCAA tournaments, international marathons, youth sporting events of a certain scale.

So, yeah, I'm happy to provide more language about what we've been contemplating with the chair's help. We got some draft language last year to look through and kind of edit, but happy to share it with your staff.

That'd be great. Next question is how do small and medium sized cities gear up for these types of events?

You want to take it or me?

I can start. Are you talking specifically about hosting them or kind of the halo effect of LA 2020? Hosting? Yeah, I think that's a big challenge for them.

I've been in San Diego, so we've been fortunate that we are a major market, but when we talk to our industry counterparts, so we were at the teams conference last week in Anaheim. I think we had 12 different California destinations there. And it is a major challenge.

I think a lot of them are fighting with one hand tied behind their backs of, like we mentioned earlier, that they can't afford some of these incentives that event organizers are looking for to bring their events to their destination.

So I don't want to speak on their behalf, but I do think it's a major challenge and for some of.

Those midsize and smaller destinations, too. Yeah, they're kind of going into it blind where it's an opportunity that there's usually a process, and Nate and I have been doing this for a long time, where you create a local organizing Committee and a host Committee, and you take certain steps years out in advance.

But for certain destinations, they might not know those steps that you have to take. They might not know that you need to outsource certain things.

There's gonna be contractors that you have to hire to do XYZ because you have a day job, basically, that you have to run your own company if you're a sports Commission, or if you're a convention and visitor bureau, something similar to that.

So for a lot of them, we're seeing it's a huge learning curve too, as well, of how they get into this market and how they can prepare ultimately to host these set events without them breaking the bank or budget or just flat out saying, no, I'm not gonna host it, losing out on the opportunity.

And just add one more piece on that. Our organization is very volunteer driven as well. So we have a small paid staff, and then we've been around since 1978, and we have about 1000 volunteers that help support our efforts of putting on all these major events in San Diego.

So if you are a smaller destination with a smaller population, that's going to be a major challenge as these events come in and look for volunteer support, and you may not have the citizens in those communities willing and able to help.

Great. My next question would be how much do venues or events organizers work with city leaders going out working with city leaders, business owners to coordinate and inform residents and community of what's going on? Because I'm thinking of my area. I think the City of Carson or the Long beach will be hosting something.

And during one of these games. And Mike, I don't know if they've thought. I mean, I think everyone is excited that they're being considered, but I'm not sure they're prepared as well as the businesses and the community to take in all that's getting ready to take place in our community. Right.

So how often do you think that those conversations are taking place? Is there something already set up that this body may not be aware of?

I know that LA is going to play a major, major role, and I know that when I was in city hall a few weeks ago, I saw the Olympics, people meeting with the City of Los Angeles. But how are people being brought in informed the impact things of that nature sure, yeah.

If I can jump in real quick. I was on a call with the La Biz fed, I think, last month, and there was a representative from mayor bass office, and those conversations are definitely starting. Engaging the small business community in the lead up to LA 28. Things are just starting to percolate, though.

I think it was right after the handoff from the Paris Olympics. Happy to get a contact to Brian.

LA is a big. I'm sorry, the Olympics, obviously, is a. A big, big example. You know, some of those other events that are coming to town. I know the Los Angeles and Sports and Entertainment Commission does a tremendous job with getting the local community involved.

One example of that is when they hosted the last Super bowl, and they're probably going to butcher me because I'm probably going to mess the name up.

But it was a diversity supplier program that they had for small businesses that were usually from diverse backgrounds, and they made sure that when the NFL and the Super Bowls come into town, they need to outsource and hire a lot of things, like where are they getting, like, certain chairs from?

They need decor, signage, all that kind of stuff.

And LA Sports and entertainment Commission set up a program that they had a business connect where you would go there, you would meet with those suppliers, and ultimately, you know, it would give those business, or give business to local small businesses around, you know, the Englewood south central area that they really benefited from.

You know, that is a great job that they've done on the big stage. I think, too, we need to see more of that, though, from some of our other communities not only working on events, but also how can they get involved, as you mentioned, with some of those bigger events that are coming to town?

So can they feel that spread to other parts of La County that might not necessarily see it?

Or if we are going to be bidding on something in the future, maybe there's some way that we can tie this in to those small and mid sized businesses to be almost like a stipulation that it's like, if we're going to be hosting this, we're going to have this certain supplier program that's going to benefit our local community, too, as well.

So making sure everything is covered is something that we need to have foresight about in the future.

Thank you very much. I mean, again, the all star Super Bowls, the World Cup, LA 28 coming forward, and there's a lot of stuff that we need to. I guess my concern is, do we know who's on first and who's on second? Who's calling the shots?

Who's trying to coordinate all of this, and what level does the Federal Government play to making sure that we're successful in these endeavors? So I want to pivot and see if my colleague has any questions. No? Okay. Well, thank you very much.

We appreciate you being here, and we look forward to working with you and following up on some of the things that we discussed here thus far. So thank you very much.

Thank you.

We're going to call our second panel up. Our second panel will focus on some of the city specific impacts of who are hosting these events. So, Mike, would you please come? And Brenda, please come.

And we're going to start with Mike First, and please introduce yourself, your industry, and then we'll ask and proceed with your presentation, and then we'll ask Rin to do the same thing at the appropriate time.

Thank you. Chair Gibson, Members of the Committee, my name is Mike Testa. I'm the President and CEO of Visit Sacramento. Thank you for having me here today. I appreciate it very much. Special events, whether it's music festivals or a sporting event, are critical to Sacramento's economic success.

And I'd like to give you some examples of how much they matter and how challenging they are, not only to book, but to keep long term. I also want to explain the value of festivals in a mid sized city like Sacramento.

We've been talking about a lot of larger events in bigger cities, but they're critical to Sacramento's success. So prior to 2015, Sacramento's tourism industry lived and died by Sacramento's convention center. The success of visit Sacramento, or lack thereof, really played the key role in our tourism industry.

We booked some sporting events, NCAA basketball, USA track and field, some high school sports. But the focus was always on booking larger meetings and conventions. In 2013, we started to diversify that portfolio a bit.

We created the branding campaign that positioned Sacramento as America's farm to fork capital, simply based on the agricultural production that comes out of this region and out of California as a whole. As an organization, we also oversee the Sacramento Sports Commission. So we are tasked with, they just mentioned NCAA basketball. We go after those events as well.

On top of conventions with the food identity that we created for the city, we created the farm to Fork Festival, the Tower Bridge dinner, and the legends of wine event. Those events have raised the profile of Sacramento and our appeal to tourists. Sacramento doesn't have a Golden Gate bridge.

We don't have an ocean that we get to market. So those events that we host is how we generate media to the market. They're important to get the word out about a smaller city like Sacramento. We are not a bucket list city like Sacramento, so creating reasons that draw attention to our city is very important.

We further diversified our portfolio by partnering with Danny Wimmer Presents, a firm that's based in Los Angeles and acts as the largest independent music festival producer in the US to create aftershock. What started as a one day event with less than 12,000 people has become a four day festival that welcomes 160,000 people to Sacramento.

It is the largest hard rock festival on the West Coast. Attendees come from every state in the union and 40 countries. The economic impact for aftershock is $28 million, just over four days. 67% of the attendees for Aftershock don't live in the Sacramento region.

So when you talk about a tourism driver, it fills every hotel from Davis to Lincoln. Our friends in Placer County will tell us that during aftershock, their hotels are full, their occupancy goes up, and the rate the hotels are charging does as well.

In 2022, we again partnered with Danny Wimmera presents to create the country version of Aftershock called Golden sky, which is an obvious alignment with the Golden State. For this festival, we had a history of aftershock to aid in our conversation in trying to get the City of Sacramento to become a partner on this event with us.

Music festivals are a tough business to be in. Typically, organizers will lose about $1.0 million a year for the first three years as they build the brand, as they create an identity, and as they generate a following. So the opportunity for California, in my opinion, is one that the City of Sacramento took advantage of.

We asked the city to partner with us to help minimize that risk to Danny Wimmer presents by underwriting that $3 million risk that they will see in the first three years. Without the partnership with the City of Sacramento, Golden sky wouldn't happen. We asked the city to invest $1.5 million in the golden sky.

This is not a lot of money, knowing that aftershock generates more than $1.5 million a year in hotel taxes, in sales taxes. The idea for the city was, help us to get this off the ground. You'll get your investment returned to you almost immediately, and after that, it's pure revenue that comes into the City of Sacramento.

It's not often that we can convince government to act like a business and invest in something with a return. But because we had the data from aftershock, we were able to do that with the City of Sacramento. It started out as a two day festival.

This is our third year, and it jumps to a three day festival in just a couple of weeks. That's the success we've seen with it, and I think it's important to talk about how we define success as organizations.

It's really about booking hotel rooms, driving hotel taxes to the City of Sacramento, driving sales taxes to the city and county, and everything that comes with visitor spending.

So when you look at pre pandemic from 2017 to 2019 versus 2023 bookings, the data shows that in the US, Canada and the Caribbean, hotel bookings were down by more than 9%. In the west, they are down 17%. In California, they were down 28%. But in Sacramento, our bookings are up 80%. And that's because of music festivals.

That's because the events that we're bringing into the market, the people that are being attracted to Sacramento, that are staying in our hotels and spending money into our economy. So that's the difference. Where a lot of California cities are struggling because business travel has not yet returned, conventions remain down.

From an attendance standpoint, the festivals in Sacramento have been the bright spot in Sacramento's economy, and it's something that our board has had us double down on because of what's happening.

Those festivals are contributing more than $50 million into our economy over a three week period and bringing people to California from across the world, many of whom are playing tourists long after the festival ends with aftershock. When you're attracting people from 40 different countries, people aren't coming to Sacramento for three days.

They're extending the trip to Los Angeles, to San Francisco, and different parts of California that tourism dollar extends. Candidly, the State of California is not a player in these events, the ones that are creating jobs and bringing significant economic impact to the cities, especially the smaller ones.

Oftentimes, it is the gateway cities of California that get the attention, versus the second tier cities like Sacramento. And as the state capitol and California's front porch, Sacramento needs help. Sacramento is a city that is home to the highest percentage of state workers, and they work from home the majority of the week.

That has capsized our economy, especially downtown. And it is festivals, sporting events, and tourism in General that have been the bright spot in our economy. This industry is incredibly competitive. Our friends at Danny Wimmera presents tell us that for their two major music festivals in Kentucky, they are direct partners with the State of Kentucky.

The state financially contributes to their success. That partnership has allowed them to go after bigger name bands for their festivals, which attracts a bigger audience and higher economic impacts.

We would love to see California help us to keep these events in our state by becoming a partner and helping us to attract and land them in the first place. I'd like to offer one last example.

We've been working with Slow Food International, which is based in Italy, about replicating their terra Madre event in Sacramento every other year. Terra Madre Americas would create a platform that would celebrate California's food production, our agricultural industry, our chefs, and our restaurateurs. Tiramadre in Italy attracts 350,000 attendees from 30 countries.

The economic impact creates is in the tens of millions of dollars. The challenge for us is that the reality of the investment to bring it to California will be significant. But I believe that the return on that investment will be astronomical. When I talk about help from the State of California, it's not just about money.

As we were brainstorming venues in Sacramento that would really show off the city and the state. The grounds of the Capitol building were obviously attractive, but it won't work because financial transactions are not allowed on state property.

While we have this great attraction in Sacramento as the seat of government, we cannot leverage that reality for our residents because the state won't allow it. So our food vendors, the ones that celebrate, are celebrating our state's agricultural prowess, would not be able to actually do that on state property.

And I think it's a huge missed opportunity in this highly competitive industry of festival and events. We need help attracting these opportunities. We need the local and state government to partner with us both financially and in helping us to avoid the red tape. Visit.

Sacramento has a budget of $15 million, and our role is to spend that budget to drive revenue to large and small businesses across this region. And because the state directly benefits financially from the work that we do, they're a natural partner, and we would welcome that actual partnership.

It would be a huge benefit to the State of California, and they would share some of the revenue that is driven directly to them. In terms of the city making and investment in Sacramento, the idea is that the festival generates additional hotel taxes, new revenues. Right.

So they are sharing those new revenues with us in order to bring the festival here. It's not coming out of the General Fund. It's coming from money that is being created from these festivals. So you asked the previous speakers, how do we create some of these funds?

We have the ability to look at the tax revenues that these festivals are generating. So we can give you an idea of what revenue is coming into the State of California. That's the argument we made with the city. We're going to bring you $1.5 million. Give us $1.5 million.

And once it's paid back rather quickly, you take all the additional revenue from it.

Okay, I was going to ask the question. I'm going to hold it. It's about Taylor Swift. She can fill a lot of people's coffers. But I'll go to our next witness. Brenda?

Hi, good afternoon. I'm Brenda Tucker. I'm the Director of Arts Marketing with SF Travel. I'm just waiting for the deck to come up.

Next slide or something.

Okay, great. So I'm the Director of arts marketing and this position connects arts inclined visitors with arts organizations, public art, and different events. This is one of the only positions like it in North America. I think there's about five of us. It was started by grants for the Arts in 1991 and has changed drastically over the years.

We have over 35,000 hotel rooms. Next slide, please. We have over 35,000 hotel rooms and 250 hotels and about 3000 short term listings that are active each month. Moscone has 29 citywides for next year, so that's 2025. And this year we do about a third of the self contained business in San Francisco.

And this year we have 890 events and we are have driven over 300. Those have driven over 337 room nights. 337,000 room nights. In 2025, we project about 600,000 hotel nights from citywide business alone. Next slide. So we partner with Moscone and self contained conferences.

Moscone hired over 35 artists to perform last year for RSA, cybersecurity, game developers, and Semicon. We also hired musicians for the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in Union Square, and they performed for over 18 hours. Next slide.

Dedanco came to visit last year in 2023, and they created incredible compression for the city and the region, driving over 18,000 room nights per night, and most deadheads attended at least two shows. The NBR All Star game is coming to San Francisco in February, and the host Committee is expecting over 500,000 visitors from outside the Bay Area.

Both our largest museum close by, which is SFMOMA, and Moab, the Museum of African Diaspora, will have sports related large exhibitions during this weekend. The SF MoMA exhibition actually opens next Wednesday, and I recommend everybody get to see it if they can, especially the sports folks. Next slide.

Grants for the arts this position, as I mentioned, it provides singular focus on the arts unlike any other position at SF travel, and we create and source innovative arts content through our site. We create videos, one of which I'll share with you a few of which I'll share with you in a minute.

And we drive the largest amount of traffic to the SF Arts site, which is a local arts magazine and it is slid into the New York Times once a month.

We provide research and support content for different arts organizations and I co host the PR Arts Roundtable with San Francisco Arts Commission and they have Members like the opera, creativity explored, organizations of all sizes and diversity of disciplines. Next slide please.

We provide international media coverage for the arts in San Francisco, so we work with journalists from all over the world doing visiting the city, and we promote the different arts organizations worldwide.

We print maps for over 120 sites of interest in San Francisco, and we also share images and videos and maps with our local organizations like the Bay Area Arts Council or Excuse me, Bay Area Council of Economic Institute. This position has a seat at World Cities Culture Forum.

This is sponsored in San Francisco with San Francisco Arts Commission and the World Cities Culture Forum was created by London and is supported by the Mayor of London. Includes cities like Johannesburg, Sao Paulo, Rio, Hong Kong, Taipei, and cities from all over Europe. So the folks that attend are like the head of culture for Amsterdam and others.

So they, you know, we convene once a year and talk about all the different. Thank you. All the different challenges we're facing and how to help each other.

We hosted in 2018, so we had the head of culture from Paris, the head of culture from Amsterdam, et cetera, and other cities visit the City of San Francisco, which was an incredible boon for the city and our cultural leaders. Next slide, please. We are hosting the further triennial.

We're creating the further triennial with a group that will land in 2027 that will commence in March. It's an inaugural event and it will include over 11 counties in the Bay Area.

It's regional and this is something we hope will turn into the events Pacific Standard Time, or PST, going on in Los Angeles right now that's supported by the Getty and has had incredible impact for Los Angeles County. I serve on the steering Committee for this and we are working with the top Bay Area arts leaders.

Next slide, please. So this position creates a virtuous cycle. We drive hotel stays by promoting the city's art experiences, and this increases hotel occupancy and revenue for arts organizations through the hotel tax Fund. In 2018, San Francisco voters passed Prop E by 74%. This allocates tax funds from hotels to support the arts with overwhelming local support.

Next slide, please. We were the first ones to create Expedia campaigns, arts focused Expedia campaigns. These campaigns use keywords like creativity, museums, galleries, and we segment that arts audience, which has been extremely beneficial for San Francisco.

We found out that the highest average daily rate of any of our audiences are the arts and culture audience, which in turn brings in more tax dollars for those arts organizations.

Eventually, we're in our 6th, almost 7th Expedia arts campaign since 2021, and in 2023, we drove over 75,000 room nights and almost a little over 2 million back to the City of San Francisco in hotel tax.

These campaigns have won the VCA poppy, which we are very proud of, and the Esto Destiny award, which is us travel next slide, please. And again and again. Actually, let's go to the video. I want to share a video with you from one of these campaigns. This is included in the Expedia pages as well.

TikTok. TikTok.

So it looks like it's gonna jump around a little bit. Thank you. Next slide. So the impact for always artistic, we drove 40,000 room, over 40,000 room nights with an average daily rate of 219, resulting in 1.2 million in hotel tax. Over 40,000 new visitors came to the landing page.

Those are unique visitors and the video and campaign represents 19 arts entities in 13 neighborhoods throughout the city. Next slide. Illuminate SF Festival of Light. This is the oldest domestic citywide light art program in the United States. It started 12 years ago and it started as a unique selling Proposition for San Francisco.

We have over 60 sites of interest for illuminated art. We do this at the longest during the winter for the longest nights of the year. In the 10th anniversary, we partnered with five M, which was a non demic partner. They're a developer, to bring new visitors to their site.

And in turn we created maps and it became a city, incredible city event. And this was a finalist in the Esto awards as well. Next slide, please. This is also a video. It's not as long. Next slide, please. Thank you. Arts and culture is more important than ever to bring visitors back to the city.

These visitors are staying in hotels which generate hotel tax to support the arts, as well as ticket revenue for various museums and gated arts organizations. The city is leaning into arts and culture to drive recovery, especially downtown. And as an organization, we show our support to the community through this role. Next slide. Very good.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Just looking at another question asker. So thank you very much to both of you. We're going to open it up this time. For questions from, from the Committee Members, I have a few questions to ask.

What are some of the ways that artists and the creative economy workers are able to contribute or enhance promotion of an event?

We hire artists in many different facets. So artists are hired for Dreamforce, they're hired as musicians for the Jp Morgan that I mentioned earlier, and we also hire them for. Is that what your question means? Okay. And so we hire them for the conferences, specifically throughout the year for different conferences.

I just got an email this morning for the game developers conference. We're going to have a meeting next week and we're talking about how to do exactly that, how to engage the arts community and how to bring them into that conference.

And I would just add to that one of the things we do with arts, the arts community at our festivals is we bring them in to show the personality of Sacramento.

Oftentimes if you're coming to see a band, you're in the festival grounds and you're going to see part of the city, but for the most part, you're seeing the show.

So bringing in local arts really shows who the people in Sacramento are, what's important to us, and again, conveys a little more personal message about our city to the attendees.

Got it. Thank you very much for that. How does events and gatherings, when successfully create more opportunities for a city to host other events?

So for us, in a couple of different ways, after shock, we saw tremendous success in that event, and it caused the promoter to look at a second genre in country music. This year, we also hosted for the first time, an island and reggae festival.

We have an EDM group out of San Francisco that is doing shows in Sacramento. So the success of these festivals has generated attention from other promoters across the country. Sporting events are much the same. When you show you can host the NCAA track and field, oftentimes you'll get a qualifying event, then you'll get the finals.

And in Sacramento's history, we hosted the USA track and field trials for the Olympics. Based on those smaller events. It's a resume builder. The more you can show that your resume builds, the larger events are attracted to your city.

Got it? Can you walk us through the process of how the cities compete against other cities to host these kinds of events?

It's economics. When I look at our partner and Danny Wimmer presents, they host louder than life in Louisville, Kentucky. It's the equivalent of aftershock in Sacramento. The hotels are cheaper in Louisville. Gas is cheaper in Louisville. It's cheaper to fly from Denver to Louisville than it is from Denver to Sacramento.

To come to Sacramento for a four day music festival is just more expensive. California is more expensive than Kentucky, which you would expect. In my opinion. California is better than Kentucky, so I expect us to charge more. But I think that's really it. It's economics.

For a lot of these festivals, the crowd is oftentimes a blue collar crowd. Money is important to all of us. And so when they look at if they live in the middle of the country, is it less expensive to go to Sacramento or to Louisville? So a lot of that is just the market itself.

But then, you know, for the promoters, they typically will have to spend more of their own money in Sacramento, which means the ticket prices are going to be higher, too. So a lot of it is the economics from state to state.

Good. Did you have. Okay. San Francisco will host the NBA All Star games next year, 2025. And the brand new Intuit Dome, which is amazing, will host the 2027. What does Sacramento need to do in order to get the All Stars games to Sacramento?

We need to build about 3000 more hotel rooms in our downtown, typically for the NBA.

I'm sorry, did you say how many hotels?

About 3000. Hotel rooms? Hotel rooms. The NBA requires 7000 rooms. In the downtown we currently have about 3000 maybe.

So there's a floor. There's a floor that. There's a floor considered.

Yes. And they want that because we have enough hotels in the region, but not in our downtown. They want you to be able to walk out of your hotel room and be in the party. So if you have to take a bus or a shuttle from your hotel that's not in downtown, that doesn't work for them.

So a market like Sacramento I think eventually will compete in that space. But we're years away from having that kind of hotel inventory in our downtown. The size of our convention center also matters. We could probably make that one work. It also is about direct flights into the market from places across the country and the world.

So as our market in Sacramento evolves, we'll have more of those things. But we're a ways away from being able to qualify for an NBA all star game, unfortunately.

Got it. We commend Sacramento, for one, for the investment they made into the convention center. It looks absolutely amazing. And so certainly it will attract people from all over coming into, at least for the convention.

And the golden one center has been that way too, where the Kings play. I mean, this morning we were told we got the first and second rounds for March Madness in 20202027.

So that building, because it is State of the art and I've heard from people that have toured other arenas, ours is as nice as Miami's is. So that helps our city too. I think in that regard, that impression is extremely positive for Sacramento.

So I know that when Jerry Brown was Governor of California his last, well, 2014 or whatever, other governors were coming here making offers for businesses to relocate to their particular state.

So how are you guys targeting other states to get, and when there's an event coming up, how do you do the marketing to other areas where, you know, people are sports enthusiasts or entertainment enthusiasts to get them to come to.

Even consider some of it as an attendee? Yes. Yeah. So some of it's just classic marketing. We buy media across the country. We have a pr firm that we retain out of the East Coast that does a lot of source media for us or earned media for us.

So writing articles about that, Sacramento is going to host March Madness. We do General marketing campaigns on what the attributes of our city are in getting those events. And I think you heard this from the last speakers. We're competing against a lot of other cities, whether it's a convention or a sporting event.

It oftentimes comes down to incentive. That if our competition is offering a $50,000 incentive and we can offer a $75,000 incentive, we'll get the business. The challenge for a lot of these groups, or the equation that they're looking at is pure economics. Who is going to help us to drive as much revenue as we can?

These are for the most part for profit entities. So it helps to have a nice facility. It helps even more to be able to give them some money for their bottom line.

Great. Mister Valencia. Thank you, Mister chair. I do appreciate that specific comment, because as Californians, for a long time we have touted how wonderful our state is and whether it's business investment, residents moving to California. We constantly regurgitate the concept that because we're California, people will come here, plain and simple.

And it sounds like that is just no longer the case. So I think it's something not only as a Committee, but as a state government that we have to look at and analyze and make sure that we're providing value moving forward as well. So thank you for that.

An unopposed candidate still has to run a campaign. And I think visit California is exceptional at marketing the state.

Well, our previous panel said we have to be more than just a pretty face. So we have to have money as well. You know, some real skin in the game other than just the sunshine. I'm in the weather. Right. And that's what I'm hearing, yes.

You know, if we want, we want to continue to grow the economy in this space, California, we have to step up with a significant investment to create the incentives so that, you know, there's no doubt in anyone mind that California is better than Texas, it's better than Georgia. And the list goes on.

So that's why people should want to come here.

To your point, we have a leg up, but we're missing the second piece of that that the other states are beating us with.

Point well taken. Thank you very much. I want to thank this panel very much for coming. And we appreciate. We're going to segue to our next panel, our third panel, our final panel to focus on the venues and organizers. We'll start off with Miss Martha Salcedo and then Andy. Where's Andy? Great. Thank you very much.

And please introduce yourself and the organizations you're affiliated with, and feel free to proceed with your presentation at will.

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Martha Saucedo and I'm the chief external affairs officer for Anschutz Entertainment Group Aega, and I'd like to thank the chair of the Committee, assemblymember Mike Gibson, and Committee Members, for convening a hearing on such an important topic. I'm excited to be here for two reasons.

First, I'm proud of the industry that I represent. I tell people that we are in the business of creating memories for people. We work to create iconic, entertaining live event experiences. In the recent past, as a society and as an industry, we've had to overcome profound challenges due to the global pandemic.

But fortunately, live events, including sports events, have rebounded. I commend this Committee for engaging in a proactive discussion about the important economic impacts of such sporting events in the state and the local economy. I'm thrilled to be here because I get to highlight the profound positive impact that sports events have on our economy.

I've been with AEG for 23 years and the most fulfilling part of my job is witnessing the substantial job creation and economic impact supporting small minority businesses that this industry creates. Next slide, please.

Just to give you a little bit more background, we are the world's leading facility sports and live entertainment company and on an annual basis we entertain more than 90 million guests, present more than 12,000 shows, host more than 13,000 live events, own and operate about 100 venues.

Producers support more than 25 music festivals, and have a portfolio of professional hockey, soccer teams and esports. And I'm proud to share that one of our most iconic venues, and my personal favorite, don't tell anybody else at the company, Dignity home Dignity Health Sports center is actually located in the 65th Assembly District. Next slide, please.

Some of my predecessors spoke to the sports market in a more local level, which I appreciate.

This image is really just designed to share that after a prolonged period where our ability to experience entertainment and media in person was sharply curtailed, live sectors of entertainment have returned to growth and they're positioned to outperform the entertainment and media industry at large.

And so the other thing I just want to note here is that really, this is a global phenomenon. We're now starting to see foreign governments investing in sports because of the profound economic impact that they have. Next slide, please. So we're here to discuss the economic impact of major sports events.

High profile major events in sports such as all star games, championships and international tournaments provide a significant return on private investment, infusing capital into regional economies and creating lasting economic benefits.

Major events have already delivered more than $1 billion in economic and community impact to the Los Angeles region just in this decade and in regions like Southern California. This translates into increased business opportunities for small and minority owned businesses. Next Slide LA Sports Entertainment Commission helped share this information, so I want to acknowledge their data.

There were various questions about what it takes to host a major event. The reality is that today private fundraising is essential for hosting high profile events in really any major market. Fundraising helps to leverage opportunities to create significant regional benefits.

Usually leagues and governing bodies cover very specific costs, including some of the things listed here like security and logistical expenses, athlete and team needs and public support has decreased, resulting in private fundraising essentially being the primary and oftentimes only source of funding.

Local committees local organizing committees are responsible for filling all of the other bid requirements, which most of the time include things like community programming, legacy initiatives, benefiting nonprofit organizations, and workforce and volunteer development. Next Slide Please this slide illustrates the economic impact just in recent years in the Southern California market, which you see totals over $1 billion.

Next Slide this slide in particular focuses on the impact of the Super bowl which took place in Los Angeles. Super Bowl 56 there wasn't based on research studies estimated over $477 million in total economic impact. I want to point out a couple of other stats there $800,000 in grants were awarded to 56 LA area nonprofit organizations.

There were 225 women, minority, LGBTQIA and veteran owned companies that participated in the Business Connect program, which is an NFL program that they take to Super bowl markets designed to provide professional development, networking and access to procurement opportunities for those small business owners.

Additionally, you'll also notice a stat about there being over 250 special events held in La County associated with the Super bowl. Most of these were non official events, but a lot of times these big special events generate additional hospitality and parties and lunches and dinners and other activity that takes place throughout the region.

And lastly, there were about 70 plus champion La donors, which represents a group of private entities, private individuals who contributed to make the Super bowl feasible in Los Angeles. Next slide this slide digs into a little more data about the projected economic impact for FIFA World Cup 26.

As you can see, there's a projected 594 million economic impact for the County of Los Angeles alone, which includes 343 million in direct spending by World Cup visitors. It also includes $243 million plus in increased wages associated with both new jobs and more working hours for existing workers in various industries.

It also includes or in addition, there is 35 million in tax revenue projected. Additional tax revenue projected for La County and $22 million additional tax revenue for the State of California. We expect there to be about 175,000 plus out of town visitors. And the per visitor average spending is projected to be $2,350.

And they're projected to be a utilization of 325,000 hotel rooms during this period. So World cup is a little bit unusual. It's that it's not just a one day event, it's over a period of time. So there's kind of a prolonged economic impact. Next slide.

Here I listed some of the major events that have taken place in the Southern California region over the last several years. The main point of this slide is also to just illustrate that there's actually substantial diversity. And this is just highlighting some of the larger events.

As previous speakers testified, there are many events at the mid and smaller size level that contribute to the economics. So these are just the bigger ones. It also includes things like the Rugby World Cup. You also see wrestlemeno, which actually is a significant economic impact, and then various all star games. Us women's open is also listed there.

So pretty diverse in terms of what we see. Next slide, please. You know, despite all of our attractive attributes, as was mentioned during the last segment, California does face some significant perception issues impacting its ability to continue to attract these major events, potentially, and I say this representing a company that kind of is a venue operator.

So we're there daily and we see kind of the environment. And what we hear back from some of our customers are concerns that we haven't heard previously about the visitor experience and public safety perceptions. More about the political and the regulatory environment in the state.

And then just what was acknowledged through various speakers prior to me, which is there being increased competition and investment from other markets in other states. Next slide, please. This slide gives you a little bit of a sense of the competitive landscape and was generated believed by sports business journal citing the best sports business cities.

So those events that are more successful in holding large sports events. Now, we're fortunate that there are cities in both southern and Northern California that are in the top 25. However, there's a lot of increased competition from areas such as Austin, Florida, Nashville. They're aggressively seeking large sports events. Texas was mentioned previously.

They have been very successful through the event trust funds that they have established to essentially create a pool of resources that can be used to increase the competitiveness of those regions. And I just want to also reiterate something that a previous speaker mentioned. You know, these mechanisms vary in terms of how they're structured.

So it could be someone that's appropriating funds. It could be another entity that's using sales tax increment to help create the pool of funding or help sustain it. So in some instance, there's just an initial investment of resources and then the structure is set up so that it generates additional revenue in support of these events.

Next slide, please. So what are some ways that the State of California can support attracting these events? I'm going to focus on the third bullet, but I want to mention briefly, and it really just also acknowledge the state Legislature has been. Legislature has been incredibly helpful in acknowledging that this landscape has evolved dramatically.

There was a time when public investment essentially created the development of large sports and event venues. That economic model has shifted dramatically over the years, for one where essentially it's private sector investment that drives the development of large sports facilities. As venue development was privatized, the importance of naming rights, corporate sponsorships and brand marketing partnerships grew.

These partnerships often include signage benefits, and the public sector, including the State of California, has really recognized the economic impact and job creation benefits of these projects and over time has adjusted the regulation of signage to kind of reflect the shifts in how venues are essentially developed and the investment model.

So we appreciate the support which is included. Amendments to the California Outdoor Advertising act. So I know sometimes there's legislation that comes before you that seems very unrelated to sports and economic impact, but it very much is. I'll spend just a couple minutes focusing on the third bullet, which is the creative economy incentive program.

There have been previous attempts to establish an incentive program, as was discussed by prior speakers, that would help attract events which would have a significant impact on the State of California through job growth, economic development and increased revenue related to greater tourism.

You've heard others testify that cities and counties now compete vigorously to attract large sports events which provide an important source of revenue for their hotel, hospitality, retail and transit services industries. Another speaker mentioned, they also provide a wonderful showcase for host cities, counties and states to attract additional tourism in the future.

And increasingly, states are establishing very innovative approaches to offset hosting costs, such as transportation, city services, marketing and the promotion of these destinations. Those are areas in which these funds tend to offset costs.

You know, we appreciate your consideration and a continued dialogue around, you know, the possibility and feasibility of the State of California exploring something like this. We think it would make an important difference.

And as mentioned, I think one of the previous speakers said that of the 22 or 23 states that have established funds, almost half of those have only been established in the last several years.

So it is not too late for California to really think about this aggressively and get into that game and become kind of get into that area of competitiveness. So appreciate your interest in that area.

Lastly, I just want to make a small note again, these areas seemingly may not directly impact sports and sports events, but as a venue operator headquartered in Los Angeles, we've definitely seen an increase in individuals who are citing concerns about public safety and specifically in a diverse number of areas.

So everywhere from, you know, we've seen an increase in individuals who have mental health issues, who are also unhoused homeless individuals. There's been an increase, obviously substantial increase in the State of California for homelessness people generally. And we've also seen an increase in incidents related to individuals who suffer from substance abuse issues.

We know that the State of California has prioritized addressing these challenges, that they're statewide issues, and we commend you for your legislative efforts in addressing them. I share them with you to note that they do actually impact whether these large group businesses come to California because they notice the impact that they're having on the visitor experience.

So I want to really just close by thanking this Committee for the opportunity to testify today. It's a privilege to work in an industry which touches so many lives in such a positive way. And it's a privilege for our company to be headquartered in a state that has so much to offer.

We look forward to continuing to work with you to bring even more economic prosperity to California workers and residents. Thank you.

Thank you very much and appreciate your presentation. Certainly you cast a light on a lot of information. And after doing the question, after Andy, we're going to talk about the incentives piece that makes sense because it seems like that we, that's the way to go. But also want to. I will also ask you a question around.

You guys have to do fundraising, and I would love to know, how does that work? It's not like, well, we have to do fundraising, right, but you do fundraising to put on certain things. So I just wanted to at least take a glimpse of what that looks like. So next up, Mister Foster. Good to see you again.

Good to see you, sir. Thank you, Chairman Gibson. I want to start by saying, you know, we regulate. I'm the Executive of the state Athletic Commission. We just do combat sports. That's all I'm going to be talking about. And specifically professional combat sports.

We have about 400 amateur combat sports events a year that we also are in charge of, but that doesn't rise to the level of venues that we're talking about. So we'll just show the first slide there. Yeah, that slide right there.

Sir, you can see back in 17, we were on a growth pattern with the number of events. And I'll have the attendance on the next slide. And then you can obviously see where Covid occurred. Okay. You can also see that we've.

Even though we have returned to about pre pandemic levels in the number of events, the attendance at the events have not returned to pre pandemic levels at this time. Okay, we show the next slide. So this is the attendance at combat sports. And again, Mister Chairman, we.

The events that this Commission regulates are somewhere between 1000 people to the max of 23,000 people. So it's in those kinds. We're not filling up major stadiums like SoFi. We're doing like crypto and dignity health and pechanga arena, those type of venues. And so, like in 2018, we had an attendance of 259,000 paid fans or paid spectators.

And then last year, even though you saw the number of events was similar, we only had 168,000 paid fans. That's a decrease. Okay, I've got some thoughts on that, but those are just the hard facts. Okay, we'll go to the next one.

And these are the kind of venues that I mentioned that this Commission runs on a regular basis, is crypto and dignity health, and Honda center, which is Miss Valencia's district, and the forum, which is in Miss McKenna's district. Lots of different ones. The golden one.

And then if you go to the next slide, these are the smaller, top, second tier venues that we. That this Commission works at. And they're all spread throughout the state. So then you go to the next slide. And essentially, sir, we have about six promoters that generate about 85% of the economic activity in California.

So think of the number of events that we do. But you got basically six groups that are doing the vast majority of that. And that's the UFC, obviously, a top rank PBC premier boxing champions, Matchroom, Golden Boy, and Bellator.

So another thing that happened, sir, between this and I think this is important to mention to the Committee, is at the same time that we were going through this, as I mentioned, in this timeframe, we had a major shift.

We can go to the next slide from the way that the entertainment is consumed by the consumer at home. Okay, in 201720182019. We were majority legacy media. I'm talking about ESPN, HBO, showtime television is what I'm talking about.

It's almost flipped entirely to a streamed based network consumption now go to the next slide so you can see we were just like I mentioned, and then go to the next slide. So this is an important one to mention in 2018, of the events that we did that were televisor streamed, 56 were televised and two were streamed.

And now let's just move on to the next slide. And actually the next slide, let's go to 2023. So you can see the flip. Last year we had 11 televised and 46 that were streamed. That shifted the dynamics in some respects here with the way that the Athletic Commission is working with promoters.

And by that I mean a lot of our promoters had contracts that were based with companies that are based in the US and many based in Los Angeles. Now Dazone has came in and grateful for them, but they're based in London, England.

So it makes some difference in the fact that way our promoters are promoting which fighters and which fights and which venues that they're using, if that makes sense. Like you, we're not. We. It's important to note that this has happened, okay?

Because this does impact the way that our long term market, the growth of a boxer, has to start from the granular level. We start at the club level, then the mid level, then the top level.

And right now the folks from London can make a star out of anybody and then come in and use a California venue, which is fine, it's great, it's good for California business. But I do think that having. Acknowledging that that has happened is important. Now what did we do? What happened? What did we do?

When Covid came out, there was like. To me, there was like this pent up demand of activity. I had all these promoters wanting to promote, but only a certain number of venues. Okay, go to the next slide.

This just talks about our ratings and I want to go to the next slide because I think this is an important factor that we want to talk about is we didn't have enough venues to go around because everybody's wanting to do events. I'm talking about concerts and not just boxing. I'm talking about other sports and various things.

There's only so many places our tribal partners here in California have many wonderful, nice venues that we can. Our promoters can utilize to have these events at their casinos or at their places. And it helps them, it helps the California. So, you know, we have a tremendous number and go to the next slide.

These are some of the various groups that we work with on a very regular basis. And in fact, with just Pechanga, we've just passed the 100th event at the Pechanga not at the Pechanga arena, but at the Pechanga Event Center. At Pechanga. But we.

Chumash down in Santa Ynez, Morongo, Fantasy Springs, has had over 150 events with the Commission. So these are places where, these are venues that are in the state that I think if a promoter wants to come in to do anything really a concert or sports, they could be utilized.

And I think it'd be important to work with them as well to increase and talk about opportunities. And so I mentioned that.

And the one final thing that I would mention is we just finished an event on August 2, I think, Mister Gibson, it was close to your district there at the BMO stadium there, with a sold out 23,000 seats. And it was promoted by matchroom, but it was largely sponsored by the Saudi government.

The Saudi Royal Investment Fund came in. Mister Turkey, his Excellency the sheik came and he met with the Commission and they hosted the event, had M and M sing and I. It was a Terrance Crawford versus Madrimov. It was a very nice big event. Did a lot of economic impact for the City of Los Angeles.

And the saudi government has. They've gotten heavily into sports, into golf, they're getting heavily into boxing. So I would just leave that with the Committee that is occurring, for your information, that concludes.

Thank you very much for your presentation. I was surprised that the Saudi government plays that kind of role into our communities in California.

Well, that was the first time that they've been here. And it's the royal Investment Fund, I think that's finance and that thing. That's what it's called. But it's a company called Sela, but it's a. It's the Saudi.

It's the Saudis. Thank you very much. I want to go to Miss Elcedo. Question you made mention your presentation about. You have to do private fundraising. What does that look like?

So it depends, depending on the event. So, for example, the Olympics will be different than an all star event. But in General, what happens is there's kind of an announcement or there's an awareness that essentially the special event is out for bid and they're looking for a region to host it.

They will put forward in writing requirements that they're looking for that particular region that they need to meet, and there will be some requirements regarding being able to cover expenses associated with the event. So normally in Los Angeles, we're very lucky. We have an organization that's a nonprofit organization called the LA Sports and Entertainment Commission.

And they frequently are responsible for essentially gathering interested parties together to go out and put a competitive bid together. And so the financials will be different depending on the type of event that it is. And there's generally an analysis with regard to what resources will be provided by the local jurisdiction that the event will be held in.

So, for example, if it's in the City of Los Angeles, what type of public services will the city be able to provide and at what cost? Because frequently for public services, still, these events are actually paying for many of those costs.

And then there's a determination to try to identify what is the gap in funding, and these individuals go out and try to secure private funding to help bring the event to the region. So that is something that happens pretty frequently with larger events like the Super bowl game and with the FIFA World Cup.

Those are probably two really good examples. And, you know, the types of costs that have to be taken into consideration include things like security and logistical expenses, game production, athlete and team needs, media services. A lot of those are covered by. So if a league is hosting an all star game, there's funding to cover those things.

But the local organizing Committee oftentimes has to fundraise for other important things, like being able to market and promote the event initiatives. You mentioned chair initiatives around workforce development and small business engagement. A lot of times, those funds also help support those initiatives. Community programming additionally, and some additional public safety needs.

Good. Thank you very much. I want to just tease out another question, clarifying question. What is the work relationship like with surrounding businesses and the kinds of advanced warning that large venues take place? Right. How?

I mean, I can just think of my time in the City of Carson with the residents of Delamo, Mister Gill, Smith and others. And you want to elaborate on that?

Yes. Let's see. There's a couple components in terms of how I answer that one. Again, representing a venue, it's in our long term interest to make sure that we have positive relationships with the surrounding community.

So from the venue perspective, we will always work closely with the surrounding community, not just to ensure that they're aware and notified about venue or event related impacts, like traffic impacts, but we're interested in trying to identify opportunities where they actually benefit from additional community benefits.

So you heard me mention previously funds that are available for sometimes nonprofit organization. A previous speaker spoke about equipment donation related to events that are happening at their facility. Many of these sports are interested in growing their sport and in growing their fan base.

So those areas have evolved where I think that most entities producing these type of major events go well beyond notifying and communicating with the local community that the event is happening.

But really include as a foundational component of the event procurement, outreach to small and minority owned businesses, workforce development to try to make sure that they're hiring from the local community, engagement with the community organizations, and substantial youth engagement and outreach as well.

How many? Let me ask one other follow up question. How many nights a year, on average, are AEG venues in California operating?

Zero, that's a good question. I'm not sure I have a precise answer for you, but honestly, between all of our venues in California, we probably have an event taking place every single night somewhere in the state. If you average it out. I'm sure that we do.

Wow, that's pretty good. Mister Farster, a question regarding the Athletic Commission. What is the Commission's role in terms of coordinating between the boxing organizations or the UFC and host venues?

We just essentially approve the venue, sir. And if it's a venue we're familiar with, like the Honda center or like Carson, we love that venue, then. Then we're good. If we don't know the venue, then we'll go out and check it.

Okay, a Member of Valencia. Thank you. A question for Mister Foster. What is missing to promote California or us athletes compared to England, which you shared about in your remarks?

Well, I mean, what I meant was, and maybe I took it the wrong way, but the company, Dazone, is a worldwide top outfit. They're looking to just promote across the world. If you have a local TV network or a local station, they're more likely to be more interested in promoting local athletes.

That's essentially what I meant by that. And now that Dazone has got the contract with Golden Boy, which Golden Boy's Oscar De La Hoya's company down in Southern California, we're starting to see a lot of uptick in that. But that transition that happened when streaming.

When HBO, essentially, HBO boxing, which been on for many, many years in Showtime, got out of boxing. That transition took a toll, not just on California, but on us based boxing.

Well, maybe it's more. So a question of figuring out how we inject more energy and focus on athletes coming out of California to ensure that when they get to that level, their pedigree is elevated and we're able to broadcast them not only in California, but maybe more at the national or global level.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Going back to going to Oakland. Oakland has two professional sports venues that are now vacant. How can they continue to be utilized in ways that will attract tourism any ideas.

We just ran an event in Oakland.

We don't do that many events in Oakland, sir. But I suspect that the market will correct and the market will come back and Oakland will pick back up. That's what I think will happen.

Like I said, we don't do that many events in Oakland, and all of a sudden we're popping up with events in Oakland, at least from the boxing Commission's standpoint. Sure, sure. Any thoughts? Martha?

With respect to, you know, previous speakers also spoke about other types of special events, live music, arts. So I can't speak directly to those particular venues, but I can speak to the fact that there is a substantial increase in attendance in live music events.

And so Oakland has a rich history of being a leader in terms of live music in the arts space. So I feel really confident that they will be able to kind of repurpose. But, you know, a lot of that also goes back to earlier points about having funds for marketing as well, the region.

Great. Well, I have no more questions. Thank you all for your presentations and for being with us here today. I wanted to move to this part to move to the public comments section.

Anyone in the audience wishing to do or say or may approach the microphone, please state your name, the organization in which you represent, and please commence with your comments. We don't have very many people, so I won't be a stickler in terms of time, so please go right ahead.

Thank you. Mister chair Members, I'm Julie Malonowski-Baum. I represent the California Hotel and Lodging Association. CHLA represents everything from the small little bed and breakfasts up to the big brands. And we wanted to first say thank you for having this hearing today and highlighting these issues and having high quality presentations. We really appreciated it.

I want to make three points. The first of them is something that you heard continually over here. We do want to support the idea of there being more incentives that the state put more skin in the game. My second point is that we make sure that that is shared equally among the different states, size regions.

So the small, the medium and large. We know that COVID return, you know, the comeback from COVID was uneven. That what the state can do also is make sure those incentives kind of course correct that for us.

The third point I want to make is really more of a cautionary tale of, you know, California is more expensive, and sometimes California is more expensive to do these types of events. It's because of policies that we put out of this building and at the local level, the local governments are doing it too.

So I would say, I would encourage if this is something that is of importance to us because we know that tourism is such a big deal for the golden state that we should be asking ourselves when we kind of push more policy out of the state and on the local level, is this going to help or is this going to hurt?

Thank you very much.

No, thank you very much for your comments. Certainly appreciate it. I keep hearing a runny thing. Skin in the game California. What's the skin in the game for economic prosperity and viability moving forward.

So please, Mister Chairman Members Alex Torres here with Brownstein Hyatt on behalf of the National Independent Venue Association. Representing over 500 independent brick and mortar venues as well as festival promoters in the state. So our venues range in size from a 350 cap room on J Street Harlows to Bill Graham Civic, which is just under 10,000.

And so it spans a pretty broad range. It can be even bigger than that. The Greek theater in Berkeley. And so I think, again, thank you for this, putting together this hearing, this conversation. I think on the economics is really impactful. One of the big statistics that we advocated for when independent venues needed badly Covid relief.

Otherwise a large portion of our sector would have died, is that dollar one at a show, at a local show is dollar 12 in local economy. So for the mega events here, that's even bigger. And so I think what we're here today to express support for is, I think, plus one on that previous comment.

There's a lot of cost factors, especially for independent venues that are kind of passed down. That folks assume we're much bigger operators than we are. We're small businesses. So I think being mindful of that is one thing.

Secondarily, when it comes to doing these mega events, allowing putting some skin in the game for smaller operators to get a piece of this. We as a state invested to save independent venues after Covid. And now we have this rising tide which can really lift up all of us, right?

There's a space for the Sofis and the big venues that are operated by AG and some of the larger operators to also benefit when we're included as well. And so we just put a fine point on that. I think Mister Testa spoke earlier about aftershock and Golden sky here in Sacramento. Great independent festival promoters.

But the economics of this, or big events like that come to Sacramento. Independent venues that have been here for 40 plus years are dead. So even if it's simple things like co promoting and like saying, hey, go after the show, go to this place, check out our small businesses.

It doesn't take a whole lot of reinventing the wheel on this. There's a lot of opportunities for collaboration, so we just encourage you to look into that. So thank you.

Thank you very much.

Hello. Good afternoon. Chair Gipson, Mister Valencia, and Mister Anderson and Miss Vogel saying thank you for all of your hard work in putting today's hearing together. It's very informative. I'm Sabrina Lockhart. I'm the Executive Director of the California Attractions and Park Association.

We represent California theme parks, water parks, family entertainment centers, as well as the businesses that provide services and equipment to our industry. Our Members are of all sizes, very big parks that are very well known across the globe.

A couple in and near Mister Valencia's district, but also one of our Members is a third generation family owned business, so we really run the gamut. And Kappa is a Member of the California Travel Association. Many of my Members have cross membership, and we are in support of an events Fund to help draw tourism to California.

We support this for a few reasons. Looking at the attendance in some of our larger parks, it's like hosting a major event every day. So our venues are well equipped to handle large crowds. We already serve as venues for conferences, for youth sporting events, for musical performances, as well as marathons.

So this is something that our Members are already doing. And I wanted to give you one example of how events are being there's competition in our space. The American coaster enthusiast every year hosts a coaster con, and this year they were in California, and they told me that their attendance was about half as much as last year's.

And I asked them why, and I'm meeting with them in a couple weeks to get some more of the details, but they said in 2023 they went to Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and those states offered them tax incentives, and that meant that their ticket price for attendees was lower and it was much cheaper for people to travel and spend multiple days.

These are the coaster con events last this year it was 10 days visiting parks all over California. So I just wanted to let you know that we're an industry where we're facing competition for events going to other states. Love Dollywood, but we want them to come to Hollywood. Our parks are tourism drivers.

They're as iconic as our sunny skies and our beaches. Just last year. I'm not a golf fan, but my husband is one and he's watching the US Open.

And I was surprised to see this 1 minute long video drone footage featuring the beautiful Ferris wheel at Pacific Park on Santa Monica Pier, which is solar powered, by the way. So we serve as opportunities to remind people to visit California. That's why we're in full support of finding innovative ways to increase visitorship.

We know that when people come to California and they have these great events to attend, they stay longer. That means more nights in our hotels, more diners in our local restaurants, and then more opportunities to visit destinations big and small. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Seeing no further public comments gonna bring it back to the Committee for any final comments. Mister Valencia, you have anything? Do I need something? Okay, I wanna say this has been certainly for me and for the Committee, a very robust conversation.

It's certainly coming upon us to do everything that we can to have these discussions. I don't know if these discussions are late or are we early, because we know that California is going to be hit with a tsunami of people and tourists coming to our state.

And the question is, will we be ready for the all star games? Will we be ready for the Super bowl? Will we be ready for the World Cups? Will we be ready for LA 28? And so I don't know the answer to that.

That's why we're having these conversations early and now, because it's important for us to have these conversations. We look at turning the page and closing this chapter of 2024 out and opening up a new chapter of 2025. What we need to do to get California ready for everything that's getting ready to take place.

And I think by the testimonies as well as the presentation, we have taken a number of notes and we're going to pull on each and every one of you to clarify and see how, what we need to be doing as California to prepare ourselves to be. To have some skin in the game.

Not just be a pretty face, but also have some skin in the game so that we can attract people from all over the world and to receive a world class opportunity to visit us as we become the host to the entire world. And so I want to say thank you very much for coming out.

And certainly if you wanted to be here and could not, certainly through our porthole, feel free to submit any kind of written testimony or any comments.

We do read those comments and we invite you to, if you wanted to be here for whatever reason, you could not, please take advantage of that porthole so that we can hear what's on your mind and look and act accordingly. So thank you very much for being here. We appreciate the arts, entertainment, sports tourism, meetings adjourned.