Hot Springs shrugs at loss of Sun Belt

March packed with events, officials say

— March is a hectic month in Hot Springs, so the loss of the Sun Belt Conference’s basketball tournaments shouldn’t have much of an effect on commerce, hotel managers and a tourism official said.

The Sun Belt announced this week that it is moving its men’s and women’s postseason basketball tournaments to Lakefront Arena in New Orleans in 2014, ending a five-year run at the Summit Arena in Hot Springs.

Good weather, spring break and Oaklawn racing will bring enough visitors to Hot Springs to keep hotels and businesses occupied,said Jeff Purnell, owner of the Comfort Suites and Comfort Inn and Suites in Hot Springs.

“Fortunately, March is a busy month for us,” he said. “We are going to miss [the Sun Belt] but I’m sure someone will take their place.”

Originally, the Sun Belt Conference signed a three year deal with Hot Springs to hold the tournaments at the Summit Arena beginning in 2009. The contract was extended for another three years after the 2011 tournaments.

Hot Springs is releasing the Sun Belt from the second contract early, said Steve Arrison, chief executive officer of Visit Hot Springs.

“It was a mutual agreement,” he said. “We are sad to see it go, but we understand their reasoning.” Sun Belt officials said earlier this week that moving the tournament to New Orleans should help the conference build a fan base because the city is a popular tourist spot.

Arrison said the key to minimizing the economic impact the move might have on Hot Springs, is to find a new event for Summit Arena.

“Anytime you loose a big event, how much it will hurt will depend on if we get something else on those dates,” he said. “We have plenty of time to get something in that date.”

Arrison said Hot Springs has already started looking at other events, including talks with the Great American Conference about hosting a tournament.

Arrison said it was difficult to say how much money the Sun Belt tournaments brought to Hot Springs.

Purnell said the tournaments provided a lot of business for his hotels, but he’s not worried about next year because March is the second busiest month of the year in Hot Springs.

“For some reason everybody tries to cram things into March,” he said, adding that the Sun Belt tournaments leaving the city would actually open up rooms for customers that normally would be turned away because rooms were full for the tournament.

Robbin Kennedy, assistant general manager of the Baymont Inn and Suites, said the basketball tournaments didn’t generate a lot of business for her hotel.

“We haven’t ever had that much of an impact with them here,” she said. “We will have more of an impact with the state high school basketball tournament not being here.”

The Arkansas Activities Association decided in 2012 to move this year’s Arkansas high school basketball state championship finals to Barton Coliseum in Little Rock.

Summit Arena has hosted the state finals since 2007, but couldn’t this year because the dates conflict with the Sun Belt tournaments.

Arrison said Hot Springs plans to bid to bring the high school finals back to the city.

Kennedy said the high school championship finals brought the Baymont Inn and Suites more business because more people come to the city to watch.

“The state tournament brought way more business,” she said. “Much of March is spring break for surrounding states, so we are hoping to still be OK with that.”

Business, Pages 27 on 02/09/2013

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