By Mike McClure
Aside from providing entertainment to local basketball fans, the Governor’s Challenge Basketball Tournament helps fuel the economy in a downtime for local hotels and restaurants. This year’s tournament drew 53 teams with around 1,000 players, infusing an estimated $775,999 into the local economy.
While 24 of the teams are local and did not need to stay overnight during the tournament, which ran from Dec. 26-30, the other 29 teams did stay overnight at hotels in Salisbury. According to Wicomico County Assistant Tourism Manager James Simmons, the estimated impaction the economy is determined following the state’s economic calculator, taking into account the projected amount of money the visitors and their families will spend on hotels, restaurants, gas, and souvenirs.
“You’ll see a larger impact economic as we continue to bring in more of town teams,” said Simmons, who in his third year of working with the tournament. “We wouldn’t have the event without our local teams and our local fans.”
The tournament is one of the county’s 36 sports marketing events. Those events account for $35 million of the projected $43 million driven by the county’s events in FY ’15. The basketball tournament brings in visitors during a time that the area sees a downtime in tourism.
“It’s a tough time of year for hotels. They struggle for business this time of year,” Simmons said. “They may come here for this basketball tournament and they enjoy the area and decide to come back. A lot of teams don’t realize that there’s something between the bridge and Ocean City and this gives us an opportunity to expose them to this area and what we have to offer.”
It’s also an opportunity for local players to gain from exposure, playing against teams from a larger area in front of college coaches and scouts. “I think we have the talent here, they just doesn’t get the exposure that they need,” said Simmons.
Over 175 of the tournament’s alumni have gone on to play in college over the last five years. “Even if the kids don’t go on to play in college, it’s a memory they’ll hold on to forever,” said Wicomico County Director of Marketing and Public Relations Kristin Goller.
Another draw of the tournament is playing in the Wicomico Civic Center. “I think that’s part of the magic of the environment because they can play in a large scale arena. It prepares them for their state tournament,” Simmons added.
The basketball tournament, which has taken place for the past 33 years, was started as a four-team tournament by Wicomico boys’ basketball coach Butch Waller in 1981. It increased from 35 boys teams to 49 this season, with teams from five state and Washington, D.C. including Staten Island, N.Y. and Charlotte, N.C. The Governor’s Challenge is the largest holiday high school basketball tournament in Maryland and is the second largest tournament in the region behind a Wildwood, N.J. tournament (70 teams).
This year marked the start of the girls’ tournament with four teams including a team from Mardela. “I think that’s where we have a huge opportunity for growth,” said Simmons.
Also new this year, the county partnered with DMVelite, a showcase events group from Bowie, which helped connect the tournament with high school teams looking for a place to play over the holidays
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