By Dave Roberts
I love a success story. Especially when good numbers can back it up.
During ten days this summer, the United States Police & Fire Championships played out across the region. This Olympic-style event attracted nearly 2,700 full-time and honorably-retired law enforcement officers and firefighters from across the country. The games included 38 Olympic-style sports such as archery and water polo and a dozen non-traditional sports such as dodge ball.
An official from the organizing body — the California Police Athletic Federation — recently released the final report with facts and figures from the event.
The most significant number Chief Operations Officer Cheli Mohamed presented in her summary was an estimate of the event’s regional economic impact: $5.7 million.
That’s an impressive sum from an event that was very close to leaving San Diego for lack of an anchor sponsor.
Key to keeping the Police & Fire Championships in San Diego was a $50,000 Third District Neighborhood Reinvestment Program grant approved unanimously by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.
The return on that $50,000 provides a fine example of the public benefits that stem from a county grant.
Much of this dividend came from hotel stays: 8,300 “room nights” produced a direct economic impact estimated at $3.8 million.
The event supported 60 full-time, temporary jobs. The workers served spectators and athletes at 35 venues throughout the county — from Oceanside to Otay Mesa and La Jolla to Santee.
Tax revenues for the city of San Diego alone totaled $143,000.
Beyond its economic benefits, the Police & Fire Championships let the public show its appreciation to participating emergency responders, who ranged in age from 18 to 80. You could see the camaraderie and goodwill right on the athletes’ faces.
I had the privilege of presiding over the games as honorary chairman.
In that role, it was easy to tie the event to the county’s Live Well San Diego health and wellness initiative.
It felt great to give the athletes — who make great sacrifices for the public — the appreciation they deserve. In addition to our cheers, we awarded more than 3,000 medals in more than 5,000 divisions, weight classes and age categories.
Looking ahead, 2016 will mark the 50th year of the competition and organizers are expecting a big increase in participation.
That’s a success story for San Diego and for the thousands of men and women who do so much to keep us safe.
Dave Roberts represents the Third District on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.