The largest youth hockey tournament in the country has come to the Nutmeg State, and businesses are hoping the player’s family brought their bank cards with them.
More than 3,500 players on 208 teams are participating in the Connecticut Polar Bears Holiday Hockey Tournament that runs Sunday through Wednesday.
The Greater Hartford Convention and Visitor’s Bureau says the impact of the tournament, now in its 25th year, is huge for the state.
“It’s over $3 million in economic impact,” said Curt Jensen, sales manager for the bureau. “There’s over 11,000 room nights guaranteed in this tournament from the 45 hotels. It’s quite a staggering number.”
This is historically a very slow period for Connecticut tourism. Jensen says that at this time, hotels usually only run at 10-20% occupancy.
Not only will the players, their friends and their families be paying for rooms, but they'll also be paying for other amenities.
“We’ll probably just eat out every night,” said hockey player Colleen Newcomb from Quincy, MA. “We don’t really know what’s out here so we’ll go to some restaurants.”
The tournament began 25 years ago with only four teams, and has grown 50 times over.
