NCAA Lax Finals a Winner for Local Businesses

Northwestern University celebrated its seventh NCAA women's lacrosse win in eight years on Sunday inside Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium at Stony Brook University. But it was outside the stadium where locals felt the impact of the nation's top four teams coming to town, for the second year in a row.

Though nationally televised, unlike last year's final, Sunday's title game between Northwestern and Syracuse did see a slight drop in attendence (7,127) over 2011 (8,011). However, that doesn't mean the local economy suffered as a result.

Last year's final took place over graduation weekend. With graduation moved up to last week, the service industry was able to capitalize on two busy weekends at Stony Brook.

"We got a double bang for our buck this year by Stony Brook thinking strategically," said Lenore Paprocky, sales director with the Holiday Inn Express in Stony Brook. "Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we were sold out last week due to graduation. And this week were booked Thursday through Sunday."

According to estimates put out by SBU - based on attendence, the number of athletes and personnel accompanying the teams playing, volunteers, media, and number of participants in the U.S. Lacrosse National Tournament, held in tandem with the college tournament - roughly 20,000 people visited the area for the tournament. This year's tournament drew roughly the same crowd, according to Tom Chen, director of communications with SBU Athletics.

Stony Brook officials also estimated that just among hotel revenue alone from the four teams participating in the tournemant, $100,000 was generated last year.

Local restaurants noticed a boost in traffic.

Pat Haufe, manager at The Bench Bar and Grill, said he delivered meals to the champs, totaling between 40 and 50 sandwiches. And between walk-ins, he said he noticed between 50 and 60 lacrosse players come in from other teams.

"We probably wouldn't have been as busy if it wasn't for the lacrosse tournament," Haufe said.

Though Haufe did point out that prior to the women's finals, SBU hosted the men's lacrosse quarterfinals in May - though that was typically held earlier in the month.

At Mario's, owner Marco Branchinelli said the effect "wasn't crazy," though it was noticed.

"We had more than we usually have. Sunday, the weekend of Memorial Day, we usually don't have that kind of traffic. We had a few extra calls and some larger reservations."

Country Corner owner Ben Sarydarian said he couldn't provide exact numbers - "Memorial Day weekend is usually pretty busy," he said - however he did notice a lot of new faces, leading him to belive that the lacrosse tournament did have a positive effect.

While Paprocky said the "strategic" move by SBU to reschedule its graduation proved a gain for Holiday Inn Express, she added that an often busy weekend typically - with Memorial Day weekend being the unofficial kick-off to summer - might not be the best time to host a lacrosse tournament in town.

"I almost want to say to someone setting up a tournament like this, pick a weekend that is historically not as busy," she said.

Local vendors, for now at least, won't have to worry about the tournament reigning down on the busy long weekend in 2013. This year's tournament was the second in a two-year bid by SBU to host the games. Next year's tournament is currently out for bid, according to Chen.