More than 13,500 people attended the Downtown Long Beach’s New Year’s Eve celebration, making it the most successful Downtown Long Beach Associates (DLBA) Event.

Of those 13,500 people, 12,000 attended the Fitz & the Tantrums concert, which 1,500 visited the waterfront to watch the fireworks with a closer view.

“This proves that the need and desire for Downtown to become Long Beach’s celebratory hub is more alive than ever,” said Kraig Kojian, President and CEO of the DLBA. “Our impromptu World Cup celebration reflects just a hint of the success that comes from such events, from lifting local pride to benefitting businesses.”

An initial analysis report of the event found that each attendee spent, on average, $72.06, making the return on investment for every DLBA dollar spent $14.

“The spending power for this event ultimately projects to $754,852 with $218,011 by way of hotel stays, resulting in a total economic return of $972,863 for NYE 2014 – up significantly from last year’s $774,659 for the same celebration,” said DLBA spokesman Brian Addison in a statement.

Furthermore, the report found that 70% of the attendees reside outside the Downtown area and 85% of the audience was age 39 or younger. About 68% of attendees said it was their first time at the event.

“The celebration was a testament to the increasing quality of events the DLBA has been hosting,” Kojian said. “44% of the people who attended said they heard of the event by word of mouth. The significance of this is that our NYE celebration has a strength and reputation that is firmly grounded in consumer confidence given a large number of people were willing to promote it without any personal gain.”

Additional highlights include 11% of attendees staying at nearby hotels, resulting in $218,011 in hotel spending; $100,000 in tax revenue for the city; and nearly 40% arriving either by walking or utilizing public transportation, through a partnership with Long Beach Transit which provided free rides, city-wide from 5:00PM to 2:30AM.