It’s root, root, root and spend, spend, spend
Houstonians are giving the economy a boost as they pick up Astros gear and head to bars and restaurants
C APS and jerseys flying off store racks, beers and bar food served under big-screen TVs, joyous cheers replacing talk of flooded homes and cars. Houstonians are celebrating the Astros’ World Series run this weekend with high-fives and dollar bills.
“The more people share love for the team, the more good luck they have,” West University Place resident Dorothy Kaldis said, explaining why she’s spent $500 on merchandise for friends and family ahead of the team’s return to Houston for games 3-5, Friday through Sunday.
The home games will likely generate $20 million to $30 million in economic spending, said Patrick Jankowski, senior vice president of research for the
Greater Houston Partnership. The estimate is based on the experiences of Kansas City and New York City hosting the 2015 Fall Classic.
The Major League Baseball championship is no Super Bowl, which Jankowski estimates had a bigger than $300 million impact on Houston’s bottom line earlier this year. But the city had four years to line up corporate sponsorships and welcome tens of thousands of outof-town guests, including high rollers drawn by the game’s global allure.
While Houstonians filled but a fraction of the 72,000 NRG Stadium seats for Super Bowl LI, the hometowners — many of them eager for a little post-Hurricane Harvey distraction — will be the ones packing Minute Maid Park for the World Series games.
“It’s a great feel-good event for the city,” said Jankowski, whose daughter gifted him with a pair of Game 3 tickets. “If nothing else, it gives us something else to talk about besides Harvey.”
In the days after the Astros’ 4-0 victory over the New York Yankees last Saturday, lines wrapped around Academy Sports + Outdoors stores across the region. The crowds are still there, and the shirts, mugs and caps don’t last, Academy spokesman Allan Rojas said, noting that some have taken to camping out to await new shipments.
Even the tasseled, woolen toboggans with sewnon Astros and World Series logos sold out quickly at the Academy near Rice Village earlier this week despite the balmy temperatures.
Rojas declined to comment on how much profit the sporting goods franchise is making off the World Series mania, but he said the only other time Academy stores were this packed was when the Astros squared off against the Chicago White Sox in the 2005 championship.
“I can only imagine what would happen if the Astros win the World Series,” Rojas said.
Restaurants and bars are also reaping rewards after a prolonged posthurricane slump.
“We haven’t had a good reason to go out since Harvey,” said Chris Tripoli, principal at the local A’La Carte Foodservice Consulting Group. “It’s a perfect boost at the perfect time.”
Eateries close to Minute Maid Park will see the biggest sales bump, but others far from the downtown hubbub — and traffic — stand to draw their own crowds of fans who want to share the experience.
Takeout and delivery orders have grown by about 25 percent since the Astros won the American League series, propelling them onto the World Series stage and prompting a surge in house parties. Even restaurants with no obvious sports tie-in are offering special discounts, Tripoli said.
The biggest windfall may go to the Astros players themselves.
The team is expected to earn about $70 million should it win the World Series, said Tom Stallings, professor in practice at Rice University’s Department of Sport Management. Individual shares could total $350,000 to $375,000, depending on how the team decides to split the winnings. For instance, players could decide to give partial shares to clubhouse members. Then they must also decide who gets the biggest pieces of pie.
The only players guaranteed full shares are those who were on the roster between June 1 and Aug. 31. So ace pitcher Justin Verlander would need his teammates’ vote to get a full share bonus, a scenario Stallings called likely given his role in getting them to the championship.
On a more intangible level, hosting World Series games helps Houston market itself to outsiders, Stallings said.
“It’s hard to put a price on all the media attention,” he said.
For example, Houston First spokeswoman Leah Shah said, the games also let the city showcase its culinary and cultural offerings on a national stage.
“When the Astros win, Houston wins,” Shah said.
And the city may have much more to look forward to, Jankowski said, noting that the Texans, Dynamo, Rockets and Astros all made it to their respective playoffs in 2017.
“This is becoming a great town to be a sports fan,” he said.