CLEVELAND — Weeks like the one Cleveland just experienced have short- and long-term benefits for the city. The short term is obvious: the $25 to $30 million in economic activity for the Final Four, with the eclipse being an incalculable bonus on top.
"We didn't have a number for the eclipse because it's not an event with hotel blocks and negotiated rates, so you don't know what that's going to be, but we feel really good about it," said Destination Cleveland's Emily Lauer. "Anybody who was downtown this weekend or Monday for the eclipse, there was an energy. Restaurants were packed."
Part of successfully pulling off what we did this week is like planting a tree; the shade and the fruits it will one day generate might not be realized for years. For example, what we did in 2016 with the RNC, NBA Championship, and World Series spoke volumes about what Cleveland could handle when we bid in 2017 for the Women's Final Four we just hosted.
"So the 2024 Women's Final Four is going to do that for the next 6 or 7 years," said Lauer. "You know, we're actually bidding events both in the short term but also all the way to 2030 and a little bit beyond. That's how far out the meetings and conventions industry are being put out for bid, and we want Cleveland's name in contention for those."
It's a feeling shared by Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, who posted Monday on Instagram, "This is just the beginning. Let's harness this momentum and continue to showcase Cleveland as a premier destination."
There are other benefits of this week's success, headlines like the one in the Wall Street Journal touting Cleveland as the "New Center of the World," but the most significant benefit is the impression left on the people who visited this week for the first time like Jane Allison from Philadelphia.
"We've been doing the sights, and I've never been to Cleveland," she said from Monday's Total on the Oval. "It's a nice city, very nice; I'd like to come back and see more of it."
That's what the Owens of New Jersey thought when they first visited in 2022.
"Two years ago, we visited the Cleveland area, and we went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," said Gretchen Owen. "And we just loved it, this area, so we thought it would be a fun place to come back to."
And while what we've done with the place over the last decade or two is a significant factor in changing opinions of Cleveland, the folks at Destination Cleveland will tell you so, too, are the people of Northeast Ohio.
"We always say our people are people are our special sauce," said Lauer. "I walked through the Hyatt a million times this weekend, and there were always people talking to the staff, and it's really that warm and welcoming and friendly Cleveland that get people coming back time after time."
It was an opinion Bob Smith of Philadelphia volunteered to us Monday as he spoke of the locals he's met. "God, they couldn't be nicer. Couldn't be nicer."
Of course, everyone's impression of a city like Cleveland is better when you give them the weather we enjoyed on Sunday, especially on Monday. But after having weathered the cold and rain of night one of the 2021 NFL Draft in Cleveland, Mother Nature owed us.
