Syracuse (WSYR-TV) – For the next 88 days, Syracuse will be home to thousands of female bowlers taking part in the U.S. Bowling Congress Women’s Championships. The event got underway Thursday with a simultaneous roll down each of the 48 lanes specially built in the Oncenter.
The event is expected to bring about 30,000 total bowlers to the area through July. It is also expected to inject $40 million to the local economy.
With so many people stopping by during the tournament, the squeeze is on at hotels.
Vicki Larson, for example, just rolled into town with a team of six for the weekend. She says she’s learned to book hotel rooms far in advance, after all her years of traveling to tournaments. “I usally book in September,” she said.
Over the next three months, the bowlers are expected to spend 54,000 nights in hotel rooms that might have otherwise been empty.
“We’ll have at least 5,000 just at our hotel alone. It’s huge,” said Sandy Baker of the Crowne Plaza hotel. “We are the closest hotel to the Oncenter and we are so excited.”
Hotels outside the City are also picking up some extra business. The brand new Staybridge Suites in Liverpool opened Thursday, just in time for the tournament.
“Most of the time you open up a new hotel and you don’t have any business for a couple of weeks, but we started out well and the bowling tournament has been a big help to us,” said Jim Gallagher.
The rooms are going to be even more difficult to grab during graduation weekend.
“Graduation weekend is always a big weekend for the entire community but on top of the bowling tournament. It’s probably going to be one of the best weeks we ever had here,” Gallagher said.
The transformation of the Oncenter into a world-class bowling center took about a month and cost about $2 million. In addition to 48 meticulously leveled lanes, a video screen was built that spans the entire length of the setup.
In all, there is enough wood used for the lanes, stands and other structures to build five, three-bedroom homes. Underneath runs six miles of wiring.
Each day until July 3, pins will topple from about 7:00 a.m. through midnight. In late April, ESPN will be in Syracuse to televise the finals for the professionals who will be competing.
