Hotels, Restaurants Ready For Big Crowds From Final Four, NASCAR
March 31,2014
Reposted from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
BY SANDRA BAKER
sabaker@star-telegram.com
This weekend is shaping up to be one of Fort Worth’s busiest ever for visitors — and not just because the NCAA’s Final Four will take place in Arlington.
In addition to the men’s college basketball championship being held at AT&T Stadium, the city will play host to its annual spring NASCAR weekend as well as a large convention.
Area hoteliers and event leaders have their game faces on.
“We’re anticipating a great weekend,” said Tracy Gilmour, director of marketing for Sundance Square. “It’s going to be crazy down here.”
Gilmour, of course, is referring to the crowds expected in the new Sundance Square Plaza, where ESPN will set up to broadcast programs during the college basketball tournament. Three years ago, crowds swelled downtown when ESPN had broadcast booths in Sundance Square for their coverage of the Super Bowl played at what was then called Cowboys Stadium.
Gilmour said she expects nothing less this time around. More than 80,000 fans are expected to attend the basketball games, with the semifinals being played on Saturday and the championship game on Monday night.
Meanwhile, Texas Motor Speedway hopes that as many as 150,000 will travel to far north Fort Worth for the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup & Nationwide Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 and Duck Commander 500. The Nationwide Series race will be held Friday, instead of Saturday, with the Duck Commander 500 on Sunday. Qualifying heats for the Sunday race will be held Saturday.
Eddie Gossage, the speedway’s president, said he asked NASCAR to change the weekend of the race to avoid competition with the Final Four, but NASCAR said no. That’s when local track officials changed the race days. But it will work out well, he said, because the NCAA and NASCAR share some of the same sponsors.
“There’s an upside for us,” Gossage said. “High-ranking CEOs from major corporations will be here Sunday. In any market, you want to avoid any competition. So much of the spotlight will be on the Final Four.”
And on top of the sporting events, WorldVentures, a Plano-based company that markets travel-related products, is bringing its international convention to the Fort Worth Convention Center Friday through Sunday. The convention required about 1,200 hotel rooms, which translates to a couple of thousand attendees.
Bob Jameson, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the three events will keep the city hopping, but the hotels and restaurants are prepared. What few hotel rooms remain available are quickly being reserved by fans of the Final Four teams booking at the last minute, he said.
Although most NCAA-sanctioned events will be held in downtown Dallas and the teams will stay at hotels there, Jameson said he’s fine with that. It was doubtful Fort Worth could have handled those rooms with everything else going on, he said, and he’s more thrilled about the exposure Fort Worth will get through the ESPN broadcasts.
Read the full story here.