CLEVELAND — Between a warm March day featuring sunshine, early St. Patrick's Day festivities, and the 2024 Mid-American Conference Tournament, downtown Cleveland was buzzing Saturday afternoon.
"That's the beauty of downtown Cleveland and our set up - it's this campus environment where you can walk to everything, you’ve got lots of people around," said Jon Steinbrecher, commissioner of the Mid-American Conference. "When there are events here, the place is humming, when we’re in town, all the different teams have different bars and restaurants to hang out at. It’s wonderful for Cleveland, it’s wonderful for the Mid-American conference.”
At Flannery's Pub, an Irish pub on the corner of Prospect Avenue and East Fourth Street, crowds clad in green attire were streaming in. General Manager Sean O'Donnell said St. Patrick's Day is the business' biggest day of the year.
"With having the MAC Tournament butt right up against it, it's been a little bit crazy," he said. "We're the Kent State bar, and Kent State has both their teams in the finals, so it's been insane."
O'Donnell said he anticipates five to six thousand people coming through the bar over the course of the weekend.
Josh Kremer and Ricky Smith were at Flannery's ahead of the tournament just a block away at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
"It's always a big weekend, and especially with the weather this weekend, it kind of brings out all the people and brings out everybody, it brings out the good of the city," Kremer said.
"Cleveland has such a great heritage and a great time, great energy, it's just a fun event," said Smith.
Smith also noted the economic impact of big events has on the downtown community.
"That's the most important part - for the bars and restaurants, the bartenders, the owners, just the people coming in and spending money, and the money coming in with the MAC Tournament and we have the Final Four coming up," he said.
Downtown Cleveland, Inc. said the economic impact of the weekend is huge.
“This event is one of the biggest that we have every year downtown," said Olivia Willis, Senior Director for Clean & Safe with Downtown Cleveland, Inc. "The impact is huge. I think that’s why you’re probably going to see most of our small businesses open. This is a really great day for the restaurants and the bars and the small shopping, the small businesses that we have.”