‘A team’ hospitality

Scott Middleton knows that teenagers, basketball and pizza are a winning combination.

As general manager of Centerplate,the concession company for the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, Middleton helped create a menu for the 36,000 people expected to attend the State B basketball championships this week.

Planning for this year’s event began immediately after last year’s tournament, when the staff compared notes on what went right, what could have gone better and which foods were the most popular. Topping the list was pizza, with 2,540 slices sold. “This is a very large pizza crowd,” Middleton said.

This year the State B tournament – already a boon for local hotels, restaurants and shops – converges with college basketball’s West Coast Conference championships, hosted for the first time at Gonzaga University’s McCarthey Athletic Center.

The combined events are expected to bring about 8,000 people and $2.5 million into the area, according to the Spokane Regional Sports Commission.

Thirty-two boys and girls teams from Class B high schools throughout Washington will play games at the Arena today through Saturday. The McCarthey Athletic Center will host 16 men’s and women’s college basketball teams, with games starting Thursday and running through Monday.

Area businesses are enjoying the last year of the full economic brunt of State B, which draws thousands of people and has a total economic impact of about $2 million. Next year, the tournament will be split between Spokane and Yakima, ending a nearly 50-year tradition of Spokane hosting teams and fans from small towns across Washington.

Adrienne McCoy, reservations manager for Red Lion Hotel at the Park, estimates that nearly 200 of the hotel’s 400 rooms are booked because of State B. “A lot of the groups we have are repeat groups,” McCoy said.

While not every room in Spokane is full, the impact is bouncing into surrounding areas.

The Best Western Peppertree Liberty Lake Inn is nearly full, said Chris Mount, general manager. The 5-year-old hotel is starting to see more overflow from year to year, he said, and rooms with two beds are quickly booked.

“They stuff as many kids in there as they can,” Mount joked, saying that while things get a little “crazy” at the 24-hour swimming pool, the “parents and players are great.”

North Idaho hasn’t seen many hotel rooms filled from the State B tournament, but the college games could generate some overflow, said Mark Robitaille, vice president for tourism at the Coeur d’Alene Area Chamber of Commerce.

Marty Hogberg, owner of Luigi’s Italian Restaurant in downtown Spokane, said the tournaments will likely increase business by 30 percent.

“We just booked one of the teams from Portland. We’ve fed most of the teams that have played Gonzaga over the last few months – both boys and girls,” Hogberg said.

Over the past few years, the restaurant has built relationships with many of the small-town teams who come for State B, he said.

“We’re just happy and fortunate they’re coming to town. We’ll have the doors open with a smile.”