ESPN’s GameDay coverage of LSU vs. West Virginia University helped swell visitors to the Morgantown area, boosting the area’s already strong economy and put the region in the national spotlight once again.
“Our area has been fortunate to be in the spotlight the last couple years for various reasons, all positive, and this continue to let the nation know about our great University, our growing athletic programs and what a wonderful place to live, work and play Morgantown really is,” said Cindy Coffindaffer, director of marketing for the Greater Morgantown Convention and Visitors Bureau.
ESPN broadcast its popular GameDay college football program from 9 a.m. until noon on Saturday (Sept. 24) from the Mountainlair Plaza on WVU’s downtown campus. It was the first visit to Morgantown for the network’s football version of GameDay in the 25 years of the show. Basketball GameDay was at WVU last season.
Many business look forward to home games in Morgantown for the influx of customers it brings in, but businesses on High Street say that night games like last Saturday’s (Sept. 24) make a huge difference in their profit margins.
“For normal games (noon – 1 p.m.) it cuts our sales in half,” said, Charlie McEwuen, owner of Tanner’s Alley Leather Design Studio. “Late games we do really well. Most downtown merchants love night games.”
According to McEwuen, the amount of business was even better because of the GameDay crowd. As soon as the GameDay coverage was over, merchants saw a flood of fans to High Street in numbers McEwuen says hasn’t been seen since the days of the downtown stadium.
While pinpointing an exact number of visitors this weekend is hard, Coffindaffer daid, it is safe to assume that it went above the high average already set by normal game standards.
Kenneth Busz, president and CEO of the Morgantown Area Chamber of Commerce, says it is in the process of finding just how much the games affect the area economically.
“We have just begun the process to study (the economic impact),” he said. “No on knows the answer to that question. The last study that I have seen was done in 1989 and concluded that $21 million was spent on the entire season. So back then, it was roughly $6 million per game. Many years later, it has to be higher.”
While WVU may have lost Saturday’s big game, many agree that the benefit of putting Morgantown in the spotlight will have a big effect on exposing the area to more tourism later down the road. The more positive exposure the area gets, the more business it will eventual bring.
“A prime benefit of having (ESPN) here is the positive exposure that Morgantown will receive,” Busz said.
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jl/09/28/11
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