Northwest preparing to host regional rounds
CODY THORN/DAILY FORUM
The Bearcat Paws are displayed prominently on the outside of Bearcat Arena in Maryville. This Saturday, the arena will be full of eight basketball teams playing for the Central Regional crown in the NCAA Division II Basketball Tournament.
While Northwest Missouri State University has played host to national playoff football games in the past, they have never had a chance to host a basketball regional tournament.
This year, that will change.
After finishing as the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association Tournament champions — as well as the regular season champions with just one loss — the Bearcats landed the Central Region No. 1 seed and earned the opportunity to host the regional tournament at Bearcat Arena.
This is a major opportunity to show off the school, one that athletic director Mel Tjeerdsma said the school is more than prepared for.
“We’ve been preparing for this since before Christmas,” Tjeerdsma said. “We’ve never hosted a region before, and other than conference schools and the other non-conference teams we’ve played, people haven’t experienced our atmosphere. But we anticipated a great year, and we thought this might be a possibility, so we’re prepared for it.
“It’s just more logistics than anything else. We can’t change our facility, but from a logistics standpoint, we have to figure out locker rooms for eight teams, arrangements in the arena, providing each team 150 seats behind their bench for each game, organizing 12 to 13 officials, and all of that. There’s a lot of logistics that goes into hosting, but we’ve been in contact with our site representatives and the other schools and we feel like we’re ready for it.”
Having an event like this is not just an opportunity to show off the university, however. Nodaway County Economic Development executive director Josh McKim said it was also a chance for the community to show off a bit.
“What we’ve done over the past few years will show community pride, from redoing the Fourth Street corridor to the mill and overlay project on North Main Street,” McKim said. “We’ve done a lot over the past few years to make sure that the aesthetic of our community is improved.”
McKim said the economic impact of tourism events like this came out to about $80 to $100 per visitor according to several industry standards, not counting hotel rooms. With as many people coming to town as there will be, this could present a few issues for the community, as a whole.
Nonetheless, McKim is confident that Maryville is up for the challenge.
“With any event of this magnitude, there’s always a chance that there will be surprises,” McKim said. “That’s why we prepare for these events as a community, so that when unforeseen things come along, we can rally together and take care of them so that nether the community nor the visitors know that there were any concerns.”
Maryville city manager Greg McDanel added that the community experiences short bursts of tourism several times a year.
“We’re probably going to be as tight on hotel rooms, if not full up, as we are during graduation,” McDanel said. “There are several days around the year when events in the area book up lots of hotel rooms, and this will just be one of those times.
“However, tourism in Maryville comes back to sales tax revenue which go to support city initiatives, from Mozingo to Parks and Recreation to road projects. Every time we have an event that provides a short-term boost to the economy, we also notice a long-term economic impact on what we can do to keep improving our city.”
The Central Regional playoff begins this Saturday at noon. Northwest plays at 6 p.m.