Sports are indisputably big business; the NFL alone generates a combined $9 billion in annual revenue. That youth sports are also big business, however, might be a little more surprising. Take, for example, Capital Area Soccer League, more commonly known by its acronym CASL, pronounced “castle.” This year the Raleigh-based league has budgeted revenue of $7 million and will see roughly 9,000 soccer players come through its system of 550 teams. The club’s reach is not limited to the thousands of participating players and families, but to the Wake County economy as a whole. Every year, it hosts four major youth tournaments in November. This year the tournaments will draw between 17,000 and 18,000 players which translates to an economic impact of $9 million to Wake County, according to Scott Dupree with the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance, which partners with CASL in the tournaments that carry the official title of “CASL visitRaleigh.com National Soccer Series.” That $9 million figure is only the estimated direct-visitor spending, and doesn’t factor in an economic multiplier that some economists use to demonstrate indirect impact. This year the tournaments will bring close to 1,200 teams that will occupy between 25,000 and 30,000 hotel room-nights – “which for this market is massive,” Dupree says.