EDITORIAL: Spartan Race is an economic beast
Daily Inter-Lake | UPDATED 9 years, 11 months AGO
A host of competitors will converge at Averill’s Quarter Circle Ranch this weekend for the fourth annual Spartan Races.
Indeed quiet Bigfork will be inundated with as many as 7,500 people visiting for two days of racing over obstacle courses arranged through the forest and hills nearby.
Saturday’s Spartan Beast — which has a special attraction for visitors from other states and even other countries — will put racers on a grueling 14.2-mile course with 5,000 feet of elevation gain and challenges including a tractor pull and barbed-wire field.
Sunday’s more relaxed Spartan Sprint will be conducted over a 4-mile course.
Either day promises to be a busy one on the terrain above the east shore of Flathead Lake.
Partly because of all the out-of-state racers who come here, the Spartan Race has a huge economic impact in the Flathead Valley, and it will be paying dividends this summer as well when the race is televised.
Last year’s Spartan Race produced a local economic impact of $4.1 million, which makes it a very valuable event. We welcome all the intrepid competitors who will test their mettle on the Montana mountain race courses.
Glacier: An economic engine
Speaking of economic impact, nothing in Northwest Montana can match Glacier National Park for adding tourist dollars to local wallets.
The latest evidence of that came last week when the National Park Service released a new report that showed visitors to the park spent nearly $200 million in local communities in 2015. That spending supported 3,474 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $268.6 million.
That kind of money plays a large role in the Flathead Valley’s ability to live way beyond the means of a typical community of 100,000 people. We are blessed with many community resources in the arts and entertainment, as well as in a flourishing retail market, that are the envy of our visitors. A lot of the lifestyle we have grown used to is available to us thanks to the foresight of those who created Glacier National Park more than 100 years ago, and we should never take the park for granted. Yes, it’s a tourist magnet, but it’s also an economic engine.