Over the last nine fiscal years, KFC Yum! Center has had a nearly $1 billion economic impact, according to a new study for Louisville Tourism.Leslie Geoghegan, the board chair for the Louisville Arena Authority, says this is proof the Yum! Center is helping the city thrive.“We feel like that it validates the value proposition that was envisioned back in 2005 when this was first just an idea to put on this piece of property,” said Geoghegan.From 2015-2023 The KFC Yum! Center generated an average of $29.1 million in annual earnings, supported an average of 584 full-time jobs annually just within the Louisville Metro area, and generated nearly $942 million in total spending within the Louisville economy. About 54 percent of visits to the facility came from outside of Jefferson County, while 25 percent of spending came from outside of Kentucky.Geoghegan says with Yum! being the…