The Newport County Chamber of Commerce held a press conference Wednesday December, 29th to announce the findings of a Preliminary Report on the Estimated Economic Impact of Hosting the 34th America’s Cup in Newport, Rhode Island. As the primary author of this report, it was very exciting to see the enthusiasm for the possibility of the Cup returning to Newport in 2013 displayed by RI business and civic leaders. The general consensus is that this could be a “game changer” for the Rhode Island economy which has really suffered during the last three years.

The report was prepared to assist our state government, civic leaders, and the general public in evaluating the acceleration of improving the State’s infrastructure assets at Fort Adams State Park in order to host the America’s Cup.

We concluded that the overall economic benefit would be 1.1 billion dollars and create almost 7,900 jobs for Rhode Islanders.

Watch video from the press conference: WPRI Channel 12 Update on the Preliminary Economic Impact Report for the 2013 America’s Cup.

Although Newport was not named the host for the America’s Cup, it is the front-runner for the pre-regatta races. The economic impact would still be enormous. Also, by hosting the pre-regatta races in 2011 and 2012 the state of Rhode Island would get an economic boost earlier than if we were only hosting the finals in 2013.