GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – An influx of visitors for the WIAA Girl’s Basketball Tournament this weekend has city officials excited to showcase the area and reap the economic benefits.
The tournament at the Resch Center starts on Thursday and runs through Saturday.
It turns out the number of families staying in town, going shopping between games, and looking for a bite to eat has quite a significant impact.
“$2.6 million is what we expect will be brought to the community this week when they’re here over the weekend,” says Brad Toll, President and CEO of the Greater Green Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau.
He says the way in which that $2.6 million is reached is through a number of different ways and that families consistently comment on the evolving attractions available in the Green Bay area.
“People can feel there’s an excitement in Green Bay,” he says. “It’s a changing community, it’s a growing community.”
Meaning that a family might spend time and money at a certain destination in previous years and then easily find themselves gravitating to an entirely different part of the community when revisiting in later years.
Beyond the traditional economic pillars of lodging, dining, and shopping, there’s another unusual draw that has become a staple of the weekend.
“Prom dress shopping ends up being a very popular activity during the time the young ladies are in our community,” says Toll.
What else might be a big attraction this week for the visiting families?
Toll says indoor activities, like a tour of Lambeau Field, could benefit from the particularly chilly weather which has continued into March.
Also, many individuals will notice totally new attractions available even if they were here to visit at this time last year.
“We hear over and over that they can’t believe how Green Bay is changing and in particular the downtown,” he explains. “But even people who were here last year when they drive by the Titletown area.”
And the ultimate hope is that the stretch beginning on Thursday isn’t just a brief economic boom for the area, but rather that it lays the groundwork to future developments.
For Toll, that means making a good first impression on high school students that could be interested in returning for a longer stretch.
“There’s a possibility they’ll consider University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, St. Norbert College, [or] the Medical College of Wisconsin,” he says.
