The Sport Industry Research Center partnered with the NBA, the Los Angeles Clippers and the city of Los Angeles to analyze the fan experience and economic impact of February's NBA All-Star Weekend.

This past February, basketball’s biggest stars arrived in Los Angeles for the National Basketball Association’s biggest party of the year: NBA All-Star Weekend. The annual event draws celebrities, thousands of visitors and of course, the NBA’s top players, for a weekend packed with basketball and entertainment. 

But behind the scenes, another team was hard at work analyzing everything from fan experiences to economic impact in an effort to better understand what the event delivers for its host city and how it can be improved each year. That team is based in Temple’s Sport Industry Research Center (SIRC). 

Housed in the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management (STHM), SIRC was founded in 2008 as a collaborative research center that partners with organizations across the sport industry. SIRC’s faculty and student workers design and conduct data-driven research, which its partners use to make informed decisions and better achieve their goals. 

The center’s work has broad impacts on all levels of sport. Its partnerships have included the Chicago Sports Commission for its NASCAR Chicago Street Race; the Laver Cup, an annual international tennis tournament; the NBA and teams like the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors for NBA All-Star Weekend; and local organizations like Students Run Philly Style, and Philadelphia Parks and Recreation. 

“We do a lot of different projects that touch on various aspects of the sport industry, but we’re mostly focused on trying to bridge the work we do as academics with the industry’s needs,” said Bradley Baker, associate professor at STHM and a SIRC researcher.  

Baker works with Daniel Funk, professor and Ed Rosen Senior Research Fellow at STHM, and Thilo Kunkel, professor at STHM, on SIRC’s more high-profile partnerships with professional sport organizations. 

These partnerships are often centered around large-scale events, during which SIRC’s researchers track attendee satisfaction, economic impact and media activity ranging from social media to traditional media (broadcast, online and print). They then compile that information in a report that gets shared with partner organizations.  

Part of the goal with these reports is to capture the impact that large-scale events have on their host city. For example, a 2024 report on the NBA All-Star Game in Indianapolis revealed that the event generated $400 million in economic impact, including $112 million in earned media value. 

“We don't just examine the media’s attention and publicity that the NBA receives from the All-Star Game,” Funk said. “We’re looking at who comes to Los Angeles because this event is happening in February, how much money corporations spend producing the event and how much spectators spend during their visit. And importantly, what is the impact of this new money being injected into the Los Angeles economy for residents, businesses and government, because the All-Star event was hosted by the Clippers?” 

The reports provide host cities and event stakeholders with a data-driven picture of their return on investment. Metrics such as the number of hotel rooms booked and the amount of money spent by visitors have tax implications and drive revenue for the host city. SIRC researchers also track money spent by corporate partners, which includes spending on event production, people brought into the Los Angeles for the NBA's festivities (broadcast media, league staff) and ancillary events taking place throughout the weekend. 

By providing this information in their reports, SIRC researchers help their partners demonstrate the impact of hosting these events. 

SIRC’s reports also help partners make improvements to future events. While the NBA All-Star Weekend won’t return to Los Angeles immediately, the Clippers’ Intuit Dome hosts a variety of other events, and insights from the report can help enhance future visitor experiences. 

The NBA, meanwhile, might use insights from this year’s report to make improvements for future All-Star Weekends. 

SIRC projects regularly involve undergraduate and graduate-level students, who gain valuable, hands-on experience contributing to projects and translating insights into information that partners can use. 

Zoe Hill, a first-year master’s student in the sport business program, helped with administration and project management for SIRC’s work with the NBA on its in-season tournament, the Emirates NBA Cup in Las Vegas. 

“It’s been really awesome to work with such huge and important clients and know that you’re having an impact on the ways people experience sports,” Hill said. “And it’s given me a lot of insight into how research is actually used in the industry.” 

“It’s a big part of our model to make sure that we’re getting students involved in these projects,” added Gareth Jones, associate professor at STHM and director of SIRC. “Because, as you can imagine, our industry is very much applied, so we put a huge emphasis on experiential learning.”