Cape Girardeau businesses gain from winning teams

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - It’s no secret college athletics can supply an injection of money into the local economy. And that’s especially true when the teams are winning.

Downtown businesses are anxiously awaiting this weekend’s football home opener between Southeast Missouri State University and Southern Illinois University.

Chuck Martin, Executive Director of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau, says certain events, like homecoming and family weekend, tend to draw bigger crowds.

"Certainly we see a big uptick in the amount of people that are staying in our hotels, eating in the restaurants, filling their tanks at our gas stations, and shopping at our shops," Martin says. "So there is a very direct correlation, with those bigger events, especially."

Martin says certain rivalries, such as Murray State or SIU, can generate more revenue because they bring a bigger fan base.

However, this spike in fans only helps certain businesses because fans from schools like Southern Illinois do not stay in hotels.

Drew Yount, KRCU

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Cape Girardeau unveils Shawnee Sports Complex Expansion

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Cape Girardeau’s Parks and Recreation Department unveiled the $2.4 million expansion to its Shawnee Sports Complex Monday morning.

The expansion boasts two new fields for soccer and football, three additional fields for baseball and softball, and two new concession stands.

The new facilities will expand the complex capacity by 50%.

The project is the last in a series of Parks and Recreation improvements that were approved and funded by voters in 2008 in the form of a park and storm water tax.

Recreation Division Manager Scott Williams says that the city anticipated that it would take 5 years to complete all the projects. Instead they finished two years ahead of schedule.

"As we got in to it, we were having better success moving forward," Williams said. "More people wanted their projects done so as long as time and effort was there and as long as we could do it the right way we were fine with that and we just went ahead and did it and we were very happy with how it’s turned out."

Williams says the city now has the capacity to attract state and national sporting tournaments.

Convention and Visitor’s Bureau executive director Chuck Martin says that sports tournaments reverberate throughout the community.

"Anytime you hold a tournament, it typically fills our hotels. Those folks are eating in our restaurants, they’re shopping in our shops. They’re filling up their cars with gasoline while in the community," Martin said. "So it definitely has a very dramatic economic impact."

Cape Girardeau already scheduled a pair of high school championships. The Missouri State High School Activities Association will hold its high school volleyball championship in Cape Girardeau's Show Me Center for four years straight beginning next year. Additionally, Dalhousie will host the Missouri High School Golf Championship.

Martin adds that these Missouri State High School Activities Association championships are the first in southeast Missouri in 75 years.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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Storytelling Festival bring downtown crowd to Cape Girardeau

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Master story tellers captivated the audiences during the 4th annual Cape Girardeau Storytelling festival this weekend.

More than 630 people attended the festival in downtown Cape, which featured 6 of the top story-tellers from around the country.

Chuck Martin, co-producer of the festival and executive director of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau was very pleased with the outcome of this year’s festival.

"You know what I think for me the highlight is to see so many people coming from all over, certainly the Midwest and spending time in our community," Martin said.

The festival also brought nearly 2500 middle school students from around the area which Martin feels is important in spreading the idea of story telling and oral tradition to a younger generation.

Martin hopes to expand the storytelling festival in the future to include several additional one day events, much like the ghost story telling event in October.

Matthew Caldwell, KRCU

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