Mission:

The Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission (MASC) was created in Minnesota statutes to promote the economic and social benefits of sport for Minnesota citizens and organizations. The MASC contributes to the statewide system of amateur sports by generating economic benefits through sport events, providing increased amateur sport opportunities, and improving infrastructure through developing new sport facilities.

Statewide Outcome(s):

MN Amateur Sports Commission supports the following statewide outcome(s).

A thriving economy that encourages business growth and employment opportunities.

Minnesotans are healthy.

Context:

The Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission’s (MASC) primary focus is on 1) generating economic impact, with a focus on out-of-state economic impact, through amateur sports, and 2) providing sports opportunities for Minnesota residents. Notably, these goals are not mutually exclusive, and the same strategies will work to accomplish both.

There are some current issues that affect the MASC that make our mission even more pertinent than ever:

• First, the increasing obesity problem with our entire population, but especially with young people.
• Second, the increasingly competitive market to create and/or bid for amateur sport events. Many other states and cities are active in this market, and if Minnesota doesn’t stay aggressive in sports marketing, we will lose market share rapidly.
• Third, the continued strong performance of amateur sports events and programs during the widespread economic recession proves that while amateur sports may not be recession-proof, they are recession-resistant.

The MASC’s primary goal is to promote and develop the economic and social impacts of amateur sports. Another key statewide goal for the MASC is to identify and develop a system of statewide amateur sports centers throughout the state, to ensure that all regions of the state benefit from amateur sports. They include the state’s headquarters in Blaine, Northwest Region in Moorhead, Southwest Region in Marshall, Northeast Region in Biwabik, Southeast Region in Rochester, and the Central Region in St. Cloud.

A newer priority for the MASC is to research and initiate programs to use our existing facilities and programs to increase the activity level of previously sedentary Minnesota residents, with a focus on youth. All solutions to the obesity crisis identify fitness and activity level as a key part of any long-term solution. It’s logical that amateur sports have a role to play in positively addressing this issue.

The MASC has a diverse mix of customers and clientele:

• Existing sports participants, including athletes, coaches, team managers and parents. These are the potential participants in MASC programs and events.
• New athletes and participants. The MASC works with existing sports organizations to help them grown and expand their programs.
• Owners and managers of existing MASC-funded sports facilities around the state.
• State and national sports governing bodies. These organizations own events that can be potentially hosted in Minnesota. They also recruit and train athletes and teams that are potential participants in Minnesota sport events.

The MASC’s operating budget is funded through the state and is appropriated from the general fund. The commission has a total of three full-time staff.

Strategies:

The MASC uses these strategies to address the agency’s key issues:

• The MASC directly operates hundreds of existing and successful sports events and programs at its flagship facility, the National Sports Center in Blaine. The MASC also works to develop new events, especially programs that will tap into a new market or sport activity.
• The MASC works aggressively to market Minnesota sports events to an out-of-state audience, with the goal being to attract out-of-state teams and athletes and the economic impact they bring with them.
• The MASC works to bid for events and programs that will generate sports opportunities for Minnesota residents and generate positive economic impact on the state.

The key partners that the MASC works with include:

• Owners and managers of existing MASC-funded sports facilities around the state.
• State and national sports governing bodies. These organizations own events that can be potentially hosted in Minnesota. They also recruit and train athletes and teams that are potential participants in Minnesota sports events.
• Convention and visitors bureaus and sports commissions around the state. These organizations are actively bidding for events and sometimes creating programs of their own.
• Government organizations (city administration, parks and recreation departments, economic development directors, etc.) that operate sports facilities or have a social and economic interest in promoting the growth of sports participation in their community.
• Minnesota’s professional sports teams.

Results:

The MASC closely tracks the success of its major priorities:

• The performance of the National Sports Center in Blaine, which is the flagship amateur sports facility in Minnesota, and the one facility in the state directly overseen by the MASC. The NSC has shown strong financial performance, is operationally self-sufficient as envisioned, and shows stable attendance numbers and economic-impact numbers.
• The MASC has developed a model to compute economic impact for its major sports events. In addition to using this model on its own events, the MASC shares the model with other sports organizations, parks and recreation departments and anyone hosting sports events in the state. This model was specifically designed to be used by non-economists, but it has been verified as accurate and conservative in its estimates by professionals in the field.

Performance Measures Notes:

Previous measures reflect information from 2000, and current measures reflect information from 2011.