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Tour of Missouri's local economic impact

By CJ Cassidy - bio | email

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KFVS) - Organizers continue to look for a corporate sponsor to help offset the costs of the 2010 Tour of Missouri race even as they call for host cities to sign up.

In the meantime, we wanted to know - how did the race help Cape Girardeau?

The outlook varies depending on who you talk to.

Some restaurant owners downtown say if next year's race is a repeat of this year's they might do better shutting down for the day.

But local tourism promoters say the race helped bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time when the economy is suffering.

"We're kind of a weekend destination if you will," said Chuck Martin with the Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We do well on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays; during the week to a lesser extent."

So he was excited to see the Tour of Missouri come through Cape Girardeau on a Tuesday.

Martin and local Tour organizers estimate more than $314,000 dollars raced into the city that day.

They estimate visitors spent more than $52,000 in overnight lodging, and $262,000 on meals, shopping and gas.

"My personal feeling is that the city would welcome the opportunity as a start or finish city to once again participate," Martin said.

Mark Dirnberger who owns Bella Italia downtown, has a different spin on things.  He says when organizers blocked off roads for the race, they also blocked out potential customers.

"Because they shut down the streets at six in the morning and nobody could get in until after four o'clock. Basically by then the rush was gone," he said.

Dirnberger also says he brought in extra staff and prepared food ahead of time.

"We were told from the people who put on the event that there was going to be about 30,000 people downtown."

Instead he says he ended up with about ten customers.

"I'm in favor of the tour coming back. The way they handled the streets could be looked at a little different to help out the local businesses that kind of went out on a limb and got caught."

Chuck Martin agrees race organizers had some unrealistic expectation with regards to spectators.

He says any event that brings in 5000 spectators would usually be considered a huge success.

Incidentally local Tour organizers say they will consider all the feedback they get if the race comes through Cape again next year.

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