Visitors make their presence felt at fan sites, local businesses around Spokane

Downtown Spokane was crawling with visitors this weekend, much to the benefit of Spokane businesses.

Visitors from near and far have descended on Lilac City for a pair of prominent athletic events: the second weekend of the Pacific Northwest Qualifier tournament for high school volleyball players and the women’s basketball NCAA Tournament. The Spokane Regional hosted eight teams competing in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds.

The crowds resulted in a lot of foot traffic for local eateries, bars and boutiques, as well as a fair amount of sales tax generated for local municipalities.

For example, the 9.8 million visitors to Spokane in 2023 spent nearly $1.5 billion, resulting in $227 million in state and local tax revenues, according to Visit Spokane.

“It’s so awesome to see there’s so many people out on the streets, like obvious high school volleyball players and sports fans, and just everybody’s out shopping and got their Nike bags and Apple bags, Lego bags,” said Kate Hudson, director of public relations for the tourism promotion organization. “And I’m like, ‘Yay, they’re spending money and enjoying our city.’ ”

Those visitors play a crucial role in ensuring local businesses and restaurants are able to survive, especially after the lean winter months.

“Just Spokane alone would not be able to keep all of these restaurants afloat,” Hudson said. “It’s thanks to our visitors and tourists and meeting attendees and conference attendees.”

Those in town for the basketball games at the Spokane Arena had some pointers on where to pop into, courtesy of the Downtown Spokane Partnership and Spokane Sports. The business and sports advocacy groups partnered with eight local restaurants and bars within walking distance to the arenas to serve as “fan sites” for their respective fan bases.

For example, supporters of Louisiana State University were recommended Lord Stanley’s as a home base, while University of Oklahoma fans were advised to check out the Onion Taphouse and Grill just down the street on Riverside Avenue.

Other fan sites included Brick West Brewing Company, Mac Daddy’s and Shawn O’Donnell’s Grill and Irish Pub.

The Swing Lounge boasted a bevy of North Carolina State Wolfpack fans Friday afternoon, all sporting a hoodie, T-shirt or pack in the school’s signature bright red. All weekend, fans could rent the cubbies typically used for virtual golf as private screening rooms for the games.

Rachel Tibbits, who co-owns the lounge with her husband, Alex Tibbits, said the spot had a steady stream of customers all day. They wanted to participate in the fan site program “to support what’s going on in Spokane,” she said.

They also had their own interests in mind.

“We just love March Madness; we’re big fans of basketball,” Tibbits said.

Wolfpack fan Ann Sutton, and her husband Brad Sutton, mingled with fellow alumni at the lounge a few hours before their team was set to tip off in a match up with LSU. They arrived in Spokane on Tuesday and have enjoyed their visit so far, she said.

Sutton said she completely understood why Al Roker and company at the Today Show named Spokane a top spring travel destination. In particular, she’s a fan of “how clean and walkable” the city is, the gondola ride over Spokane Falls and the beauty of Riverfront Park.

“I thought it was great that the city had the foresight and planning for that,” Sutton said of the park and neighboring Centennial Trail.

The ravings about the cleanliness of Spokane is due to the hard work of the Downtown Spokane Partnership clean team, and city -contracted cleaning crews, who bolstered their year -round efforts over the past few weeks to give the downtown core a fresh face for incoming travelers. Tibbits sang their praises Friday, as well as the work of Visit Spokane and Spokane Sports to bring business to town.

Tim O’Doherty, owner of the fan site for Kansas State University Wildcats, O’Doherty’s Irish Pub, echoed Tibbits’ sentiment. He said the business advocacy group has been a great resource for local owners year -round.

In his nearly 35 years of business along Spokane Falls Drive, O’Doherty said he’s seen quite a few qualifier tournaments roll through Spokane. The volleyball teams, their families and fans have popped in over the last two weekends, but not as many as he’s seen in past years. He hadn’t seen many collegiate basketball die-hards as he’d hoped as of Friday afternoon, but that’s likely to change over the weekend.

March is his busiest month in the early part of the year, he said, with St. Patrick’s Day and its parade day typically bringing in more revenue than the entire month of February.

O’Doherty isn’t too worried about the business side of things. He looks forward to the summer and enjoys the personal interactions with visitors, asking them what they think about the town and answering any questions they may have.

“For me personally, it’s been great,” O’Doherty said. “They linger, they’re very friendly.

“They ask me about Hoopfest, ask me about John Stockton, they talk to me about Gonzaga,” he added with a chuckle.

Reporter Garrett Cabeza contributed to this report.