By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — LeeAnn Cox with Visit Hutch is pleased about the return of the NJCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament next week, but that event continues to highlight a fundamental shortage of hotel space the city now has.
"We did lose The Atrium Hotel and that impacts us greatly when it comes to NJCAA basketball, because The Atrium was host to nine teams during the tournament," Cox said. "That means then, obviously, we have to relocate nine teams elsewhere. We don't have the two-bedded capacity in Hutchinson, so, unfortunately, we have had to move eight teams out of town."
The financial implications of that are significant.
"That's a significant blow, not only for the transient guest tax that's collected at the hotels, but also, more importantly, for the sales tax that is collected in town when all those teams go out to eat and do all the other things that they just normally do in the course of a week long tournament."
It's also a challenge to compete for additional events.
"It's extremely important to have the right amount of hotel inventory if our community expects to continue to host events like NJCAA basketball, the Kansas State Fair and all the other national sporting events that our team works really hard to recruit into Hutchinson," Cox said. "When you cut out 215 hotel rooms, which is what The Atrium had, obviously they were our largest hotel and that just ties our hands as far as what we're able to bring in to the community. You're not going to win a bid on some national event when you don't have hotel capacity that's required."
The City of Hutchinson has considered purchasing The Atrium for the purposes of tearing down the hotel and getting together with a developer to redevelop those rooms, but that policy decision comes with some risk due to the size of the investment necessary to get the property back into shape.