Businesses were booming for four days straight.

The OVC coming to Evansville for the first time means money.

“Restaurants are full, bars are hopping and the hotels are obviously happy because people are staying the night,” says Evansville Deputy Mayor Steve Schaefer.

“Obviously when you have a huge event like this in the city where we have people coming from all over the region, its a great thing for our tourism industry.”

Schaefer says conferences like the OVC puts Evansville on the map for more events.

“Anytime we can host these big-time events it’s a good thing for the city to build up our credibility with the NCAA, and all of these other organizations.”

Doubletree by Hilton general manager Harold Mirambell says Evansville was the perfect place for OVC.

“The fans were really excited to be here. It was very convenient for them since we were right across the street from the Ford Center.

Mirambell says it was easy hosting the men and women’s basketball teams who stayed at the hotel.

“One of the coaches said that he really enjoyed this venue because it was a neutral area for both teams, no one had a home court advantage.”

More than four thousand people stopped at bars and restaurants downtown to celebrate the OVC tournament.

Now the city and the Evansville Sports Corporation are hoping to bring more big-ticket events to the Ford Center.

“We are in the process of trying to get it for another two years so we are working diligently doing a debrief to see what was done right and wrong, and we submitted a bid and hopefully we will get it for two more years,” Schaefer says the ESC has already placed bids to host upcoming NCAA events.

Amanda Porter

Reporter and Anchor for 44News

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