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As football season starts to come to an end across the nation… some Alabama cities are rolling in the dough…
“Fall is one of our biggest times those home game weekends we have eight used to be seven and we added one so we're thrilled absolutely auburn is like the fifth largest city in the state on those home game weekends so we love all those people here spending money,” says Robyn Bridges of the Auburn-Opelika Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Auburn and Alabama both get several home games per year…and their surrounding communities are enjoying the benefits of the extra folks in town.
Hans van der Reijden of the Hotel at Auburn says, “We're guaranteed sold out for every single football weekend whether its homecoming or iron bowl it doesn't make any difference its sold out.”
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Toby Wilson, who manages the Hampton Inn in Tuscaloosa adds, “We pack ‘em and rack ‘em people try to get as many people into the rooms as they possibly can.”
Its not just hotels seeing the fruits of all the football teams' labors…its also local restaurants.
One Auburn restaurant employee says, “Gameday compared to regular is probably about I'd say close to four times as more business because just so many people you are constantly having tables.”
But one Tuscaloosa restaurateur says there is one thing that has a negative impact on business- late games…
“If the games at night on Saturdays it just kills our business cause we're a dinner house and when the games at 6 o’clock everybody in the state is watching the game so we don't do very much business on a Saturday night so from that standpoint it hurts us,” says Drew Henson.
But Henson says there's so many positives that outweigh this one negative.
“There's so many more advantages that you hate to complain about them moving a few games to at night and costing us some business.”
Either way, both Auburn and Tuscaloosa have big money coming in on game day weekends.
“The average Auburn visitor from some surveying and economic impact studies that we've done spends about 133 dollars a day in the area just in purchases that’s not ticket sales that’s above and beyond ticket sales and if they spend the night that’s another 110 dollars per person.
“A home football game here in Tuscaloosa if you look at average citizen average person visitor that would come to the city for a game, they're going to spend an average of 150 to 200 dollars and that’s per one person,” says Robert Ratliff of the Tuscaloosa Convention & Visitor’s Bureau.
So what does it all mean?
“A game can be anywhere from 12 to 14 million dollars and it can be even higher if it’s a big game like LSU weekend,” adds Ratliff.
Millions of dollars may be the end result of a good game day weekend at Alabama or Auburn, but….
“Its not only about spending money its about having a great time having this great home game ambiance that you can't find anywhere else.”
As competitive as the two schools are, they do have that one thing in common, they are both major money making machines for their respective towns...
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