Tennessee Tech will host the TSSAA Division II High School Basketball Championships this weekend, a positive economic impact for the county.
Cookeville-Putnam County Convention and Visitors Bureau Director of Tourism Shan Stout said last year the championships brought more than 7,500 people to the area. Stout said there will be more teams attending this weekend.
“All these thousands of people are hitting our restaurants and shopping and filling the down time between the competitions,” Stout said. “And so there is just whole lot of revenue that tourists are bringing in. This is a very important partnership that we have with TSSAA.”
Stout said sports-tourism is a big piece of the $1.84 million that visitor spending has produced in Putnam County. Stout said the tourism dollars assist in keeping property taxes low for Putnam County residents.
“We are helping to decrease property taxes by bringing in visitors and using that sales and occupancy tax to be able to be that boosted economic impact,” Stout said. “So everything we do on the sports-tourism side, whether it’s the vacation tourism side, you know, that destination piece whatever it is, all of that leads to that bottom line.”
Stout said Tennesse Tech’s facilities have been crucial in bringing events such as the TSSAA basketball championships to Cookeville. Stout said Tennessee Tech has been a willing partner to help the county by providing facilities to host various events.
“Having that partnership to be able to call and say hey guys can we use such and such fields to bolster our roster of fields and they are just wonderful,” Stout said. ” So that is very important to us and sports-tourism has a much larger footprint than most people in Putnam County realize or understand.”
Stout said the county holds sports-tourism events almost year round and the county is always looking for ways to bring more visitors to the area. Stout said the county is fortunate as Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter and other county officials have provided incredible support for the tourism industry.
The TSSAA division two high school basketball championships will begin Thursday.
