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According to a new economic impact report conducted by the Ann Arbor Area Convention & Visitors Bureau and executed by East Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group (AEG), the total net economic impact from attendance at U-M football games on Ann Arbor exceeded $80 million in 2013.

(Tyler Stabile | MLive.com)

ANN ARBOR -- It's homecoming weekend at the University of Michigan, a time for alumni to return to campus for reunions under a canopy of fall colors. And, while they're at it, see the Wolverines face Northwestern at Michigan Stadium and fill restaurants and hotel rooms all over town.

The two are inextricably linked: Michigan football and Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor and Michigan football. The town without home football games would be as unfamiliar as the town without oak trees.

This stirs the question, how much extra tourism money flows into the community on those precious home football weekends?

According to a new economic impact report conducted by the Ann Arbor Area Convention & Visitors Bureau (AAACVB) and executed by East Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group (AEG), the number checks in at $81.8 million.

Provided to MLive by the AAACVB, the study looked at the total net new economic impact on Washtenaw County from attendance at U-M football games during the 2013 season. By "net new economic impact," that refers to economic activity in the county that wouldn't have occurred if not for home football games.

Those games, in the instance of 2013, came against Central Michigan, Notre Dame, Akron, Minnesota, Indiana, Nebraska and Ohio State and drew 781,144 fans to Michigan Stadium.

The study by AEG concluded that those weekends combined to attract 632,853 visitors from outside the Ann Arbor area. That number includes those visiting but not attending the game, as well as ticketholders.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the study was the number of fans attending from outside the Ann Arbor area. AEG geocoded season ticket and single-game ticket sales by ZIP codes to determine that an estimated 87.3 percent of ticketholders come from outside Washtenaw County's roughly 350,000 residents.

According to AAACVB president Mary Kerr, previous estimates of that number were about 60 percent.

"That was significantly higher than we thought were coming from outside the area," Kerr said.

According to Kerr, the study comes on the heels of a 2014 economic impact report that that estimated 5.8 million visitors came to Washtenaw County in 2014, producing an economic impact of $822 million.

Using that data, Kerr's office estimates that roughly 10 percent of Washtenaw County's tourism dollars stem from home football weekends.

Of the $81.8 million in net new economic impact tied to football, the study from AEG says $53.7 million is a direct economic impact (ticket sales, parking, concessions, food, accommodations, retail, etc), while $28.1 million is indirect impact (spending throughout the local economy from the direct expenditures).

An example of indirect impact cited by AEG is ticket sales by a non-local visitors supporting Michigan Stadium employees.

"These employees take some share of the ticket sale in the form of salary, and make additional expenditures in the area, which support the local economy," the study says.

In the accompanying chart, indirect impact is measured by "final demand multipliers," a number generated by the Bureau of Economic Analysis that measures residual goods and services resulting from an original expenditure, AEG analyst Zeid El-Kilani explained to MLive.

In requesting the economic impact report of U-M football, Kerr said the AAACVB wanted to "gather and conduct research for ourselves, our marking purposes, but also to show our stakeholders."

One significant stakeholder is the local hotel industry.

On Tuesday of this week, bulky slabs of concrete were pried off the pavement along Ashley Street in downtown in Ann Arbor. They were carted away, vanishing like the scaffolding and cranes that previously crowded the sky instead of the street. The Residence Inn by Marriott is scheduled to open this month at the corner of Huron and Ashley Streets.

In September, construction of a 140-room Hyatt Place on State was approved unanimously by City Council.

Hotel business is expanding in Ann Arbor and one of the anchors for that expansion is the consistency of football weekends. AEG's report found that football weekends in 2013 drew 87 percent occupancy rates in Washtenaw County at an average daily rate of $162.

Non-football weekend in September-November 2013 generated between 63.2 percent and 71.6 percent occupancy at daily rates of between $107-$112.

"Football has a huge effect, while you still have your normal transient business throughout the week for most hotels around here," said Ryan Wilkins, general manager of the new downtown Residence Inn. "What football does is give us a big boost. It's a fill-in for that weekend travel of summer. Plus there's all the excitement of the new coach."

That coach is Jim Harbaugh and his return to Michigan has drawn announced crowds of 109,651, 108,683 and 108,940 to Michigan Stadium through three home games this season.

Michigan players and students celebrate after a 31-0 win over Brigham Young at the Michigan Stadium on Sept. 26, 2015 in Ann Arbor.

Even last season, as Michigan struggled and attendance numbers dipped, AAACVB executive VP of sales and marketing Dennis Doyle says local hotels reported normal occupancy rates on home football weekends. The only difference was reservations being made later than normal and at lower rates.

Entering the 2015 season, Doyle said projected rooms available this year were "much tighter" than at the same time last year. As rooms fill up, fans are often pushed to neighboring hotels in Plymouth, Canton, Belleville and the Detroit Metro Airport.

"Now with these new hotels opening," Kerr said, "more fans will be able to stay in the Ann Arbor area, increasing the spending obviously within the county and possibly extending visits."

In estimating visitor expenditures, notes that the average ticket price at Michigan Stadium in 2013 was $63.52, while it estimated the typical day visitor spends on average $20 for food and beverages, $15 for parking and transportation, and $10 on retail purchases.

Overnight visitors, AEG says, spends on average $50 for food and beverages, $25 for parking and transportation, $20 on retail, and $68 on accommodations.

The only other events to create such tourism impacts are major conventions or athletic tournaments, Ann Arbor Art Fair, graduation weekend, and one-off events like the 2013 Winter Classic and the International Champions Cup, two events at Michigan Stadium that generated well over $10 million apiece is in tourism.

But none of them are so nationally identified with Ann Arbor as fall football weekends. That's why, for three more weekends in 2015, tourists will pour into town, hopeful for a place to sleep and a win to watch. Despite still being occupied by construction workers and hopeful to open by the end of the month, the Residence Inn is nearly booked solid for weekend home games against Rutgers and Ohio State in November.

"We're close to sold out for those," Wilkins said. "We've definitely been selling them for a couple of months now. There's been a lot of interest."

Brendan F. Quinn covers University of Michigan basketball and football. Follow him on Twitter for the latest on Wolverines hoops. He can be contacted at bquinn@mlive.com

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