Center for Economic Analysis

We estimate the economic impact of the MSU Pavilion for Agriculture and Livestock Education. The MSU Pavilion is a state of the art, multi-arena, indoor and outdoor exhibit and sports facilities on the MSU campus in East Lansing, MI. It’s main arena seats 2,000 and has over 23,000 square feet of floor space. It also houses a 364 seating auditorium, a 77,000 square foot exhibit space, on-site campgrounds amongst other features. The last assessment of the economic impact of the MSU Pavilion was undertaken in 2008. This report, applying different approaches to estimation and assumptions updates those estimates and finds that the MSU Pavilion is a significant source of economic activity in the Lansing-East Lansing metropolitan area, contributing about 93 jobs to the regional economy and generating some $5.7 million in net earnings. Over the 27 years of operations, we assert the Pavilion has contributed just under $160 million in business and household earnings in this region. Using interviews with event hosts, we assert that the current facilities limit the size and number of events hosted at the Pavilion. The planned expansion of the MSU facilities would likely result in an immediate increase in visits by some 25 percent.