- March is a big sports month in East Lansing, with the MHSAA Boys and Girls Basketball Semifinals, Big Ten Hockey Semifinals, and more taking place this month.
- While that brings many visitors, construction on US-127 could also mean congestion in the area.
- Video shows one East Lansing business sharing how they expect the construction to impact business this weekend.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
I'm your East Lansing Neighborhood Reporter Colin Jankowski. Major construction on 127 and 496 is having quite an impact on drivers this week. And now, a big sports month will bring lots of visitors right into the heart of the construction.
"We've got three large groups coming into town," Meghan Ziehmer, Executive Director of the Lansing Sports Commission, said.
With the MHSAA Boy's State Semifinals at the Breslin Center, the Big Ten Ice Hockey Semifinals at Munn Arena, and a U.S. Figure Skating Event at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube, thousands of sports fans are set to descend on our neighborhood, and that means lots of green for local businesses.
"Sport tourism is approximately a $92 billion industry," Ziehmer said. "The economic impact that that provides not only to our area restaurants but to our hotels and our businesses is pretty substantial."
It also means a lot of congestion, with construction projects shutting down parts of US-127, making travel difficult for those coming in. But, for some local businesses, it's setting up to be a bonanza.
"It's a big weekend," Jeremy Bates said.
Bates says the construction on 127 may bring more business to his restaurant and others around it, as they all sit along one of the detours that drivers will be forced to take as they head to campus.
"The majority seem to come from the east anyway," he said. "So it's going to push them to that Okemos exit and kind of get us right in the mix of people driving through campus."
Bates says he expects the sporting events in the area, plus the Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament, not to mention St. Patrick's Day on Sunday, will keep them busy regardless.
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