Merchants Are Jumping Through Hoops State B High School Basketball Tournaments Bring Plenty Of Business To Downtown Area

They’re here from Northport, Waterville, Pateros and scores of other tiny Washington towns.

Up to 5,000 people will be converging on Spokane this week for the State B high school basketball tournament, which starts today and runs through Saturday at The Arena.

When fans aren’t cheering their favorite teams on to victory, they will most likely be slam-dunking dollars into the cash registers of downtown merchants.

Count Peggy Carlon among the wide-eyed shoppers.

“It’s the shoes,” the teacher said. “I just love all the shoes up there. Sometimes I just like to go and look.”

There aren’t many stores to choose from in Pine City, where Carlon lives with her husband, Lorin, coach of the St. John-Endicott girls’ team.

While in Spokane, Peggy Carlon also plans buy clothes for her kids and supplies for her classroom.

It may be a small-town basketball tournament, but to Spokane merchants, the “B” stands for “boon.”

The annual event is worth an estimated $1.3 million in sales, according to the Greater Spokane Sports Association and Downtown Spokane Partnership. Hotels and restaurants account for roughly half that total.

Cyrus O’Leary’s General Manager Don Torbenson loves this time of year.

“If I had my way, the B tournament would happen 52 times a year,” Torbenson said. “From Wednesday through Saturday, this place just rocks with business.”

Profits at the downtown restaurant jump about 20 percent during the tournament, Torbenson said.

Many other business owners cite the same B-week effect.

For Cavanaugh’s hotels in Spokane, the tournament kicks off the spring and summer convention season. “It’s a great piece of business for us,” said regional manager John Taffin. “We’re at capacity right now. Overall, the city does very well.”

Usually 20 of the 32 teams competing in the tournament are from the Inland Northwest, according to Annie Matlow, marketing director for the Downtown Spokane Partnership. This year, 16 teams are from schools east of the Cascades.

Scores of small towns turn out to root on the teams.

The Almira/Coulee-Hartline Warriors boys team will have fans from three towns cheering for it. Folks from two towns will be pulling for the Tekoa-Oakesdale Nighthawks, the Wilbur-Creston Wildcats, St. John-Endicott Eagles and LaCrosse-Washtucna Tigercats.

Two months ago, the sports association and downtown partnership began brainstorming ways to use the tournament as a marketing tool.

Throughout downtown, shop owners have displayed posters in their windows proclaiming: “Downtown loves the State B.” That message was also printed on thousands of buttons.

Beginning next year, the B tournament may not be the only March basketball tournament in Spokane.

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, the state’s prep sports governing body, is considering bringing the 1998 State 2A tournament to The Arena the week after the B.

This week, coaches will discuss strategy and players will dream of hitting game-winning baskets. Downtown merchants will dunk visitor dollars into their cash registers.

And Peggy Carlon will visit shoe stores with a gleam in her eye.

, DataTimes