BY CAROL ROEHM
DANVILLE — Danville hotels and restaurants are gearing up for a busy time this week when 16 basketball teams and their families and friends roll in to the area for the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division II Men’s Basketball National Championship tournament.
The annual tournament will be Wednesday through Saturday at Danville Area Community College.
This year, the tournament has added four more teams and an extra day of play, which will give the local economy a bigger boost than the area has experienced in the past 17 years of hosting the event. Danville has hosted the event for 17 of the tournament’s 25 years.
“The economic impact is enormous,” said Jeanie Cooke, executive director of the Danville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We know this because we did a study — an onsite survey — several years back with the University of Illinois and the Illinois Bureau of Tourism.
“The survey showed an over $1 million benefit to the community.”
Cooke expects the tourism dollar amount generated from this year’s five-day tournament will greatly exceed the survey results from nine years ago when 800 visitors were interviewed during the event.
“There are more teams, an additional day and the prices are higher today, so the impact will be greater,” she said.
“That’s especially welcome in this economy. The tournament is a shot in the arm. It’s a matter of community pride, too.”
While there are no plans to conduct another survey this year, Cooke said there are other ways of determining the local economic impact of a particular event.
“This tournament has some of the same characteristics that other sporting events have. You can look at how many overnight stays and how much dead time there will be,” she said. “You also look at how many four-year coaches, parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles come to the area during the tournament.”
The number of teams playing in this year’s tournament will increase to 16 from 12, which means there will be more visitors who will be dining, shopping and staying in the area’s hotels.
“The number of games is also spread out, so there’s a lot of dead time for people to go out in the community and spend money,” Cooke said.
Volunteers from the community who work at the tournament and Danville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau staff help direct out-of-town visitors where to go in the area for food and fun.
“They’re always looking for entertainment,” Cooke said. “If the weather is good, we send them to the parks. If the weather is bad, we’ll send them somewhere indoors like the roller rink, the mall or the movies.
“The restaurants are very good at accommodating the teams, and the teams spend a great deal of money at the restaurants.”
Diners, hotels busy
Phil Thomas, owner of the Big Boy on Lynch Road, said, “We’re certainly looking forward to the expanded tournament this year. I enjoy it as a basketball enthusiast and a restaurant owner.
“It’s a great event and a positive thing for the community,” he added. “The community needs it.”
Thomas said the restaurant’s breakfast buffet is popular with the teams.
“They eat it by the tons and really enjoy it,” he said. “There are a lot of carbs on the breakfast bar so they can meet the physical demands of the game.”
The area’s 750 hotel rooms also are expected to be filled next week.
“We have a wrestling tournament the same weekend (as the NJCAA tournament), so we’ll be at capacity,” Cooke said.
Laura Engle, a front desk clerk at the Fairfield in Danville, said the hotel on Lynch Road is “overbooked” that week because of both the basketball and wrestling tournaments.
But being overbooked shouldn’t cause a problem. Engle said teams have booked rooms for all five days of the NJCAA tournament knowing that they might go home before the end of the tournament if they don’t make it to championship play.
“We know we’re going to be busy,” she said. “We hired a new person that will start this week but will help us hold down the fort for that week.”
Volunteers help
With so many out-of-town guests descending on the community at the same time, the volunteers are the heart of the tournament and help keep everything running smoothly.
“Generally we have 200 volunteers, but this year we’ll need about 250,” Cooke said.
Two DACVB staff members and three volunteers serve the food and beverages in the hospitality room. Other volunteers take tickets, distribute informational packets, work as area information guides, operate video cameras, man the concession stand, sell shirts and hats and keep score during the five-day event.
Each of the 16 teams also is assigned a local host who can answer any question about the area the team might have.
Campaigning
Danville will continue to be the host community for the NJCAA tournament until 2011. On March 27, Danville and other communities across the nation will bid to host the tournament for another three years from 2012 through 2014.
Cooke said she will travel with Mayor Scott Eisenhauer, Danville radio station General Manager Mike Hulvey, and NJCAA Tournament Director Dick Shockey to Colorado Springs, Colo., to make a presentation and formally bid to continue hosting the tournament.
There will be a live broadcast at 9 a.m. March 27 from Colorado Springs during the Saturday Morning Sports Talk on WDAN 1490 AM.
“We’ll talk about the (bidding) experience, and we’ll have the head of the NJCAA on (the radio),” Cooke said.
BY THE NUMBERS
-- Hotel rooms in Danville: 750
-- Restaurants in Danville and surrounding area: 89
-- Volunteers from the community: 250
Source: Danville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau
IF YOU GO
A tournament pass that is good for all games is available for $30. Individual tickets are $6 for each morning, afternoon or evening session. Tickets for Danville Area Community College students and senior citizens are $2, and children 6 and younger are admitted free.
The Jaguar Booster Club will hold a 50/50 drawing in conjunction with the tournament. Tickets cost $1 each. The winning ticket will be drawn Saturday during the championship game. Participants need not be present to win. All proceeds from the drawing will support DACC athletic programs.
