Ask St. Vincent-St. Mary, his alma mater.
Heck, even ask Swensons, one of his favorite hometown burger places.
They will tell you what Akron has known for years, LeBron James is good for business.
A new study penned by Daniel Shoag of Harvard and Stan Veuger of the American Enterprise Institute took a more formal look at the NBA superstar’s economic impact on cities where he has played — Cleveland and Miami — and found that kid from Akron is not only a scorer on the court, but also an economic driver outside of the arena.
In the 15-page report titled “Taking My Talents to South Beach (and Back)” Shoag and Veuger looked at the economics around the arenas before, during and after James’ time playing there.
And as the Cavaliers discovered when he left in 2010 to play in Miami before returning in 2014, life with James is a lot different than life without him.
The study found there is a “significant” impact on the number of restaurants and bars around arenas where James is in the starting lineup.
“His presence increases the number of such establishments within 1 mile of the stadium by about 13 percent, and employment by about 23.5 percent,” the researchers found. “These effects are very local, in that they decay rapidly as one moves farther from the stadium.”
The researchers acknowledge those who have argued over the years that huge investments in stadiums and arenas have little, if any, positive impacts on a community as a whole.
Shoag and Veuger counter that a player of James’ “caliber” does have a “statistically and economically significant positive effect on both the number of restaurants and other eating and drinking establishments near the stadium where he is based.”
With the help of computer programs and economic data, they looked at the economic health around Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland and American Airlines Arena in Miami over the past 10 years.
His arrival as a rookie with the Cavs in 2003 ushered in an era of growth around the arena and then a decline between 2010 and 2014 when he was off playing for the Heat.
“After Mr. James returned to the Cavaliers, the number of restaurants near the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland spiked, while the number of restaurants within a mile of the American Airlines Arena started to slide,” the report found.
Like on the court, James’ impact is best felt within the paint.
“Mr. James’ impact is strongest in the area immediately surrounding the stadiums, as expected,” the study shows. “Specifically, his presence increased the number of restaurants within 1 mile of a stadium by about 12.8 percent and the number of eating and drinking establishments by about 13 percent.
“Between 1 and 7 miles, those increases are smaller — 8.7 percent and 10.7 percent — and when we go beyond 7 miles, the superstar effect is no longer statistically distinct.”
The data, they say, confirmed their suspicion that a player like James can be an economic driver but only within the 2-point range of an arena.
And his impact on the economy was a bit more fierce in Cleveland when compared to Miami.
“Two potential explanations come to mind,” the study concludes. “Perhaps Mr. James is particularly beloved in his native Ohio. Or maybe ‘superstar amenities’ are substitutes, not complements, and Miami has plenty of them even without Mr. James, generating fiercer competition and an attenuated impact of any specific superstar.”
Craig Webb can be reached at cwebb@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3547.