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BUSINESS
Businesses seek bump from tourney
The bridge is nearing completion at Barboursville City Park Friday, June 5, 2009.
Purchase this photoBARBOURSVILLE -- More staff, more supplies, longer hours.
That's the approach many Tri-State businesses are taking as they get ready for the 20,000 or more visitors expected in the region later this week for the 2009 U.S. Youth Soccer Region I Championships.
Steve Vance, general manager of the Marshall Hall of Fame Cafe in Huntington, is among those making special preparations for the tournament, which will bring about 280 soccer teams from 13 states to the area to compete in the six-day event that begins Thursday.
Vance has bet on visitors stopping by the Marshall-themed eatery in the downtown. The cafe will increase its wait staff and open up its two large banquet rooms to accommodate what he hopes will be many, many more customers. The restaurant also will offer an all-you-can-eat burger, pizza and pasta buffet.
Vance said he expects a crowd similar to a Marshall University home football game.
"We're treating it like it's the first home game of the year -- plus 10 percent," Vance said. "We expect to be very busy and steady the whole time they're in town."
Vance's actions mirror those of dozens of other Tri-State businesses.
Games will be played at the Barboursville Soccer Complex inside the Barboursville City Park and the YMCA Kennedy Center on W.Va. 2. While games will be played outside of Huntington, business owners are preparing themselves for a busy week because virtually all hotel rooms in the region are filled with people coming to participate or attend the tournament.
Businesses will be trying to get a piece of the expected $12.5 million economic boost expected from the tournament.
"For businesses, the tournament means a giant influx of visitors who will be shopping at our stores and eating in our restaurants," said Tyson Compton, director of the Cabell-Huntington Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We expect to see a lot of people out in the business community."
Huntington alone is expected to receive between $7 million and $7.5 million in tourism money from tournament-goers.
Mug & Pia owner Kim Sarka Lake said she plans on closing her shop, located at 939 3rd Ave. in Huntington, only when the last person leaves. Lake said she's been preparing by stocking up on merchandise and keeping flexible business hours.
The shop specializes in stationery and invitations, but also features a varied selection of odds and ends such as garden fixtures, wedding books, picture frames, baby toys and jewelry.
Deneene Chafin, owner of Inspired, Runway Couture and Heels at Pullman Square, said her stores will be open until 11 p.m., an hour later than usual, to serve people visiting Pullman.
Chafin said she's stocked up on more inventory that has to do with soccer. Her stores will offer soccer jewelry, including bracelets, necklaces, pendants and earrings.
She hopes her efforts will bring more people to downtown Huntington.
"Hopefully the people staying in Huntington hotels will tell their friends staying in Barboursville what great shops and restaurants we have here," Chafin said. "Then they'll come down here and have fun for the night."
Ryan Rayburn, general manager of Hooters in Barboursville, said he's expecting to do an additional $10,000 in sales during the tournament. Hooters, located in the 6400 block of U.S. 60, is a short drive from the soccer fields at Barboursville City Park.
Rayburn said he's nearly doubling his staff and ordering more supplies to feed the hungry athletes, their families and coaches.
"Any time we have a wrestling tournament or the small little league tournaments, we always get slammed," Rayburn said.
Aside from shops and restaurants, Compton said other businesses also will see a big bump in sales. Compton said he's been busy speaking with local grocery stores, coin-operated laundries and other businesses that might be affected.
Hotels around the Tri-State, including rooms from Charleston to Ashland, will be filled with teen soccer players, their parents and coaches. Nearly all of the 1,400 available hotel rooms in Cabell County, Compton said, will be occupied by people from the tournament.
There are also an additional 1,600 tournament participants staying in Marshall University dorms, according to Karen Kirtley, the university's assistant vice president for administration.
Altogether, about 4,650 rooms in the Tri-State will be filled with tournament participants.
Since players and parents will travel back and forth from the fields in Barboursville and at the Kennedy Center to their hotels around the area, Compton said fast-food restaurants also will see a boost.
Business owners said the tournament gives the region an opportunity to show the rest of the country what it has to offer and what kind of people live in the Tri-State.
"This is a great time to showcase Huntington because we have so much to offer," Lake said. "(The tournament) will get people interested in traveling here in the future."
The tournament is scheduled to return in 2010 as part of a two-year agreement.
