March Madness left its mark on Milwaukee over the weekend. Fans traveled into town from across the country to cheer on the eight college basketball teams that faced off in the first and second rounds of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, held Friday and Sunday at Fiserv Forum. … VISIT Milwaukee estimated the event would bring 18,000 visitors and $6.5 million in economic impact to the area. The Badgers took over Deer District with fan events throughout the weekend at Good City Brewing, the Mecca Sports Bar and Grill, and the newly reopened Punch Bowl Social. The team stayed at The Westin Milwaukee on North Van Buren Street.
Leslie Johnson from Visit Milwaukee: Oh [March Madness is] huge. As we all know the hospitality industry was just decimated with having to shut down our bars and restaurants and then when we were able to open them up it was at limited capacity. So for them to be able to have this amount of activity in their businesses is going to be able to help them keep employees throughout the year... I was just at the Governor's Conference on Tourism so we were with a lot of our peers this past week and we are starting to see a lot of events like this, not to this magnitude, but they're starting to see sporting events coming back. Obviously, meeting and conventions are starting to [come back] as well. Unfortunately, tourism and economics is telling us we're not going to see a full recovery in terms of our hotel industry until 2024, so the more events we can have like this will just help us get there faster and same thing throughout the rest of the state.But let’s not forget that the City and County that was able to bring the Madness to Wisconsin isn’t able to keep much of the money that came in, as the Communications Director for Milwaukee Co Exec David Crowley reminded us.
Unfinished picture when you do these stories w/o mentioning the $$ leaving the County because we don't have the tools to capture more of this revenue. Glad ppl enjoyed the weekend, but there is a huge story here about missed opps to capture dollars & invest in local priorities. https://t.co/qnmMmyis9R
— Brandon Weathersby (@WeathersbyWI) March 21, 2022
The 0.5% food and drink tax that a whole lot of people paid over the weekend goes directly back into the Wisconsin Center District that the FiServ Forum is part of, and not for general funds that the City could use to pay for the extra police and infrastructure needed to handle the large crowds of people. In addition, Milwaukee County does get 0.5% in sales taxes from any extra business that comes its way, but loses $4 million a year in shared revenues as part of the deal to get the FiServ built. Now maybe the added property values around the arena, increased viability for tourist-related business and the exposure for the City more than makes up for those extra costs. But this weekend’s big event around Milwaukee should remind us that a city of that size is able to contribute a lot to our state’s vibrancy and economy, but our gerrymandered GOP Legislature sure hasn’t been keen to give much back to Milwaukee in return. Despite the fiscal annoyances and Bucky's meltdown on Sunday, it was still awesome to have the Madness back last weekend, and especially to have it in Wisconsin. It felt like normality and a break from the cloud that has hung over much of the COVID era, and it's generally a good thing to show off this state's largest city at a big event. Let's hope that's a sign of things continuing to return to normal, with the economic boosts and activity to match.I am not saying don't celebrate this windfall for local biz, but the dollars we lose are just as important when you think of the fiscal cliff in 2027 and its impact on County services. The information is out there & we're always willing to talk about it 😃
— Brandon Weathersby (@WeathersbyWI) March 21, 2022
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