Louisville economy helped by volleyball Final Four at KFC Yum! Center

The volleyball championship is tied with the 2023 NCAA men’s basketball regional for the highest economic impact of any NCAA championship event the city has hosted.

• These numbers were determined by the Economic Impact Calculator from Destinations International, which Louisville Tourism has used since 2017.
• Last year’s NCAA volleyball championship, which spanned four days, set multiple attendance records at the KFC Yum! Center.

Louisville is known nationally as basketball country. But those who live in the city are well aware of its love affair with volleyball.

The sport’s NCAA championship returned to Louisville in December — 12 years after it first hosted the event — and left a grand financial mark.

The 2024 national semifinals and final had an estimated economic impact of $12.7 million, Louisville Tourism director of sports market development Gen Howard told The Courier Journal. The accompanying American Volleyball Coaches Association convention had an estimated economic impact of $2.6 million, making for a total impact of $15.3 million. It’s tied with the 2023 NCAA men’s basketball regional for the highest economic impact of any NCAA championship event the city has hosted, Howard said.

These numbers were determined by the Economic Impact Calculator from Destinations International, which Louisville Tourism has used since 2017. D.I. is “the global association for destination professionals,” and its calculator is an industry standard used by more than 375 destination entities in North America. The calculator takes two types of data into account when evaluating the economic impact of a given event:

One, event-specific data.

Two, city-specific data.

Event-specific data includes information like type of event (in this case, a sporting event, but more specifically, a volleyball tournament), attendance (including athletes participating in the tournament or meet), ticket sales and length of stay. Louisville Tourism gets this information from the event producer. For the volleyball championship, that was the NCAA.

Last year’s NCAA volleyball championship, which spanned four days, set multiple attendance records at the KFC Yum! Center. The semifinals between Louisville vs. Pitt and Nebraska vs. Penn State on Dec. 19 had an announced attendance of 21,726 — an NCAA semifinals record. The final between Louisville and Penn State on Dec. 22 broke the national indoor record with an announced attendance of 21,860.

City-specific data remains unchanged by Louisville Tourism. This information takes into account eight different sources of industry information like local taxes (such as sales tax, which is 6% in Kentucky), cost of living and average room rate.

The 2012 NCAA final between Texas and Oregon was the fourth most attended volleyball match in Division I history at the time, attracting 16,448 to the KFC Yum! Center. It still sat inside the top 20 ahead of the 2024 NCAA Tournament. The 2012 national semifinals between Oregon-Penn State and Texas-Michigan entertained 13,385 in-person fans, making those the 13th most attended volleyball match at the time.

The 2023 NCAA men’s basketball regional had an economic impact of $15.3 million, Howard told The Courier Journal. The regional semifinals between Alabama vs. San Diego State and Creighton vs. Princeton drew 20,289 spectators, according to NCAA records. The regional final between SDSU and Creighton drew 20,051 fans.

The city of Louisville has previously hosted the NCAA men’s cross-country championship in 2012, 2015 and 2017. And the 2023 NCAA Men’s Soccer College Cup was played at 15,300-seat Lynn Family Stadium. But it’s the KFC Yum! Center’s 22,090-seat capacity that makes it optimal for hosting high-profile events.

Louisville volleyball ended its 2024 campaign as national runner-up to Penn State. The Cards are now led by former associate head coach Dan Meske, who took over for Dani Busboom Kelly after she accepted the head coaching job at her alma mater Nebraska. U of L most recently defeated rival Kentucky 3-1 in a spring match April 18 at L&N Arena.

Reach college sports enterprise reporter Payton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com, and follow her on X @petitus25.