TOURNAMENT SCORES GOAL FOR LOCAL ECONOMY

As more than 5,000 people descended on the Show Me Center this weekend to attend the biggest indoor youth soccer tournament in the state, local businesses saw that those coming from out-of-town brought their wallets with them.

The annual St. Francis Indoor Soccer Invitational attracts players and their families from all over Missouri, Kentucky and Illinois to Cape Girardeau, according to David Ross, tournament director.

In addition to being an entertaining sports event for children and their parents, it is also quite an economic boon for the community, he said.

"The weeks after Christmas are normally very non-retail," Ross said. "This is a great event to bring people into town. Inevitably, they have to stay somewhere and eat somewhere."

The hotels and restaurants are seeing larger numbers than they normally might this weekend because of the tournament, said Chamber of Commerce President John Mehner.

"Obviously, it's a kick to the economy when you have this many people visiting Cape Girardeau," Mehner said. "They're eating and staying in hotels and they might even do a little shopping."

An employee at Drury Inn reported that on Saturday about 85 percent of their rooms were occupied by those attending the tournament. Holiday Inn said about 50 percent of their business was due to the event.

This year's event has attracted the largest number of people in the tournament's three-year history, Ross said. While there are 1,600 players making up 95 teams, Ross said, those players bring their families and friends.

He said more than 5,000 people will attend the event that began Friday night and concludes tonight with the finals. The bulk of the 94 teams are from out-of-town, Ross said, and there only 24 local teams.

"So most of the people here aren't local," Ross said.

And that's good for tourism.

There has been a concentrated effort to attract tourists to Cape Girardeau, Ross said. There are three other highly-attended soccer tournaments in the spring, Ross said.

"Those are magnets for tourism," Ross said. "All of those bring people to town and they bring money with them. A lot of places are running over with kids in soccer uniforms this weekend."

In addition, there are other natural tourist attractions in Cape Girardeau, such as the Rush Limbaugh tour, the newly decorated flood wall, and other events at the Show Me Center.

Kathie Brennan of the Convention of Visitor's Bureau is running an information booth this weekend at the Show Me Center to answer visitor questions about the town.

"We've had lots of people ask where the best places to eat are and where the mall is," she said. "It has to be great for the businesses around here."