DUBAI, Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates – A new re­port from the In­ter­na­tion­al Crick­et Coun­cil (ICC) re­veals that the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 in­ject­ed a stag­ger­ing $1.66 bil­lion US dol­lars in­to the economies of the USA and the West In­dies, un­der­scor­ing the tour­na­ment’s mas­sive fi­nan­cial and de­vel­op­men­tal im­pact.

Held from June 1–29, 2024, the event fea­tured 55 match­es across nine host lo­ca­tions, in­clud­ing three U.S. cities, Nas­sau Coun­ty (New York), Grand Prairie (Dal­las), and Lauder­hill (Flori­da), and six Caribbean na­tions, An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, Bar­ba­dos, Guyana, Saint Lu­cia, St. Vin­cent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The tour­na­ment act­ed as a cat­a­lyst for eco­nom­ic growth, dri­ving in­vest­ment in trans­port, hos­pi­tal­i­ty, and in­fra­struc­ture.

Sta­di­um up­grades, fund­ed by the ICC, Crick­et West In­dies, and lo­cal gov­ern­ments, will leave a last­ing lega­cy for fu­ture crick­et­ing events. The US, which host­ed 16 match­es, saw an eco­nom­ic boost of US $618.4 mil­lion.

The Caribbean na­tions col­lec­tive­ly reaped over 1 bil­lion, with Bar­ba­dos lead­ing the way at US $428 mil­lion, fol­lowed by St. Vin­cent and the Grenadines ($224 mil­lion) and Saint Lu­cia ($132 mil­lion). The re­main­ing three hosts, An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, Guyana, and Trinidad and To­ba­go, com­bined for $259.6 mil­lion.

The in­flux of in­ter­na­tion­al and do­mes­tic vis­i­tors led to surges in spend­ing on ac­com­mo­da­tions, trav­el, and din­ing, with Bar­ba­dos emerg­ing as a fan fa­vorite, with 50% of vis­i­tors stay­ing over five nights, con­tribut­ing to a US $22.9 mil­lion on food and bev­er­age (F&B) spend. The U.S. record­ed an im­pres­sive $52.9 mil­lion in F&B rev­enue.

The tour­na­ment am­pli­fied the glob­al pro­files of host na­tions through broad­cast vis­i­bil­i­ty, team brand­ing, and me­dia cov­er­age, gen­er­at­ing an es­ti­mat­ed US 92.5 mil­lion in me­dia val­ue.

ICC Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Ge­off Al­lardice hailed the event as a tremen­dous suc­cess.

“The T20 World Cup 2024 de­liv­ered an ex­tra­or­di­nary eco­nom­ic boost, re­in­forc­ing the ICC’s role in fos­ter­ing growth. Be­yond fi­nan­cial gains, it po­si­tioned the USA and West In­dies as world-class sports and tourism des­ti­na­tions.”

CMC