Dayton businesses expecting economic boost from First Four, St. Paddy's Day

Yahoo

06-03-2025

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — Basketball organizers and local businesses alike are gearing up for what will be an extremely lucrative set of weeks for the city of Dayton.
Between St. Patrick's Day and the NCAA's First Four, millions of dollars will flood the Miami Valley in the month of March.
Dayton is said to be the epicenter of college basketball, hosting the most NCAA tournament games than any other venue. Alongside the infamous parties held around the University of Dayton to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, Dayton will be seeing an increase in movement and money in the month of March.
'Economic impact is over $5 million just from these two games. And so, you know, the hotel rooms are full, the restaurants are full,' said Jeff Hoagland, Big Hoopla volunteer.
Full and busy is the theme for many local businesses in the coming weeks, with both college basketball and St. Patrick's Day celebrations around the corner. Local business owners say they are expecting an economic boom this year from both events.
UD students say this time of year always gets busy for local businesses.
'The bars, they always do these deals, they open up extra early,' said Natalia Glizner, UD student. 'At 5:30 in the morning, all the bars open up.'
St. Patrick's Day will be celebrated this weekend by many bars near UD's campus, like Flanagan's Pub, which says they expect to see around 2,000 customers over this busy weekend.
'This weekend for the kids, there will be a turn up on the actual St. Patrick's Day of course,' said Cat Marlow, Flanagan's Pub general manager. 'There's lot of staff organizing and making sure the staff gets our kitchens ready.'
Dayton Development Coalition President Jeff Hoagland is a volunteer organizer for Big Hoopla, who says the NCAA's tournament activities will bring in millions of dollars, supporting local and large businesses as people arrive in the Miami Valley to watch the games.
Hoagland also says this is a great opportunity to show off the region and attract more people to the area.
'Ohio is the number one military state and we are trying to bring more people here as we bring companies like Intel and Joby and Sierra Nevada, we're bringing them to Ohio and to Dayton,' said Hoagland. 'We want to bring more people. The companies are here. The jobs are here. We want to attract more people.'
And UD students are in the center of it all. Glizner says she's excited for the weeks ahead and happy to be a flyer.
'Super excited for that. It brings a ton of people to the university and it just makes it a better experience,' said Glizner.
St. Patrick's Day celebrations are expected to start on Saturday, with Big Hoopla beginning next weekend.
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