State basketball tournament brings influx of visitors, money to Lincoln

Decked in school colors from head to toe, thousands flocked to the capital city to support their team for the state basketball tournament.

“It’s really fun to get out here and support our team just it’s the first time in five years that we’ve been here our student section always is great I mean everybody comes up and supports the team,” Caden Isley a Senior from Grand Island Northwest High Schools.

With all of these fans coming from all over the state of Nebraska it brings a lot of business to hotels and restaurants.

“So you get a number of people coming in from western Nebraska that are needing to stay overnight multiple nights it’s a really exciting time of year and it’s great for the hotel business,” Troy Terwillger General Manager of the Graduate Hotel.

With people coming from all corners the state downtown hotels are pretty much sold out for the next two weeks.

“This week we’re just about sold out we’re already sold out of next week I think that’s the same throughout the downtown hotels,” Terwilliger said.

Not only are the hotels impacted majorly but other businesses are affected as well.

“It helps dramatically it’s probably I’d say 10 times what a normal weekend is so it helps, it helps our staff get a little bit more money and it helps us obviously kinda survive down here,” Michael Barton Co-Owner of Buffalo Wings and Rings said.

According to Lincoln officials, the economic impact that comes from hosting both the girls and the boys’ state basketball tournaments is undeniable.

“Our community is probably in the 2 to 3 million dollar range per state high school tournaments so over the next few weekends you’re talking several million dollars of economic impact and that broadens our tax base and that causes our retailers to get plenty of business,” Jeff Maul of Lincoln Chamber of Commerce said.