Editor’s note: This commentary is by Ben Allen, of Essex, who is a program consultant. Previously, he served as the Head Start Collaboration Office director with the state of Vermont; as public policy and research director with the National Head Start Association; and as international trade analyst/legal assistant with Sidley & Austin. He has taught at the University of Vermont and George Mason University.
[C]NBC’s Top States for Business Study rated our Green Mountain State as the 32nd Top State for Business in 2018 by using measures across 10 categories. In the Quality of Life category, Vermont is rated as the best state to live in. Vermont’s strengths are well-being, low crime, and health, and its weakness is attractions. Vermonters can flip this relative weakness into a strength and improve its overall top state for business ranking by marketing Vermont to outsiders as a sporting paradise.
Branding Vermont as a sporting paradise is not about advocating for public investments in sports stadiums because economists universally agree that these investments have a much lower return on investment than public spending on infrastructure (e.g. roads, bridges and telecommunications network), and human capital (e.g. high quality early childhood education and evidence-backed workforce retraining programs). Instead, marketing Vermont as a sporting paradise is about strategically leveraging Vermont’s organic resources: its rich social capital and sporting culture.
Social capital can be defined as shared norms and values that promote cooperation among individuals, and social capital yield benefits to its citizens in places with considerable amounts of social capital. Social capital is more likely to exist in larger amounts in states where families, communities and organizations have plenty of close, supportive relationships and in communities where individuals participate in many cooperative activities. Of 50 states, Vermont has the fifth highest social capital score according to an April 2018 U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee report titled, “The Geography of Social Capital in America.” The tradition of town meetings is an expression of Vermont’s rich social capital.
As a flatlander who moved to Vermont nearly seven years ago, I was struck by Vermont’s outdoors sporting culture relative to other parts of the country. Many Vermonters engage in multiple outdoors sports such as hiking, fishing, golf, skiing, boating, skiing (downhill, cross-country, back country and skinning), hunting, bicycling, mountain biking, swimming, and ice skating. And this is a partial list!
As an economic development strategy, Vermonters should take advantage our state’s social capital and sporting culture to host more national and international sporting attractions in Vermont. Vermont already has a solid foundation to increase the number of sporting events in the state. For many summers, the Race To The Top of Vermont in Stowe has brought hundreds of hikers, bikers and runners from across the United States and Canada to go up the 4.3-mile historic Toll Road on Mount Mansfield. The Vermont City Marathon and Relay draws thousands of runners and their families to Burlington every May. For the past two years, Killington Resort has hosted the FIS Ski World Cup for two days of women’s giant slalom and slalom racing. More than 25,000 fans attended international event and watched Mikaela Shiffrin win her first slalom victory of the season.
Working in partnership, the public and private sectors should work in concert to strategically host new national and international competitions in our state. The state, Vermont Ski Areas Association, and Vermont State Rifle & Pistol Association could organize and host an international biathlon competition. A biathlon combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. The Vermont Golf Association could apply to the Professional Golf Association or Ladies Professional Golf Association to host a major golf tournament. According to a 2011 study, Vermont ranked sixth in the nation for the number of golf courses per capita – one course per 8,011 people. Vermont would be ideal place for a national Extreme Sports competition. Vermont has micro-climates, rugged terrain, and vertical drops over 2,000 feet. These are several possibilities and I am sure VTDigger’s readership could suggest additional ones.
Marketing Vermont as a sporting paradise represents one strategy to contribute to our state’s economic growth. The strategy would complement other economic strategies, such as the state’s $10,000 remote worker grant program to attract out-of-state technology workers and the state’s Stay-to-Stay initiative created to persuade tourists to permanently relocate to our state.
