CLEVELAND — Cleveland is a rock & roll town, and there's no better place to celebrate the Hall of Fame's newest inductees than to have a major event right here.
"Cumulatively, that direct spend from this event is tens of millions of dollars," said CEO of Destination Cleveland David Gilbert.
The hype for the event has already started, with posters going up around town in areas that are expected to be high in foot traffic. East 4th Street and other small businesses are hoping to cash in.
"What it's all about is dollars from outside of our community that are spent in our community that go into pockets," said Gilbert.
As CEO of Destination Cleveland, Gilbert knows the impact large events have on the region and specifically, small businesses that have been hurting since the pandemic began.
Nina Parson is Director of Sales and Marketing for Company Car, providing chauffeurs for some of the major players in town this week. The pandemic upended the industry, but events like the induction provide multiple days of steady work.
"Something like this is going to be amazing because it's going to be what we've been looking forward to for 22 months coming back," said Parson. "We do have regular travelers everyday. But you know, these big events -- the Cavs games, the Browns games, the Induction -- these type of things allow us to continuously grow our company."
In 2018, the Rock Hall inductions welcomed 26,000 guests, 94 percent of whom were visitors from outside the county. That year's activities brought $27 million to the region, including spending at small businesses. And because this year's event is being held at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, the crowds and the impact are both expected to be even larger.
Maureen Patterson runs Solus Lighting. Even though she's not directly providing services at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, she knows guests often attend private events at venues around the city in the days leading up to the Induction. It's another opportunity to get in on the action.
"Oh my gosh, incredible -- and the momentum has just been amazing. I mean, with everything coming up, building up. And when we have the larger events like the NFL Draft that was recently here or the Rock Hall Inductions that are coming up, there's a bunch of auxiliary events that surround those that the local companies got a lot of work out of," Patterson said. "There's so much work that kind of trickles down off of a major event that gives local businesses so much to do."
"The Rock Hall has done a nice job every time they've held the Inductions of working to expand it further and further so they're really trying to make it ultimately into a weeklong event to get people to stay more than one or two days -- maybe it's three or four," said Gilbert.
That's several days with Cleveland in the national spotlight once again, increasing the odds of us landing major events in the future.
"It's going to be an HBO special it's going to showcase Cleveland and the kind of impressions that Cleveland gets in media all over the world around this event will help lead to future business," said Gilbert.
"Cleveland as a whole has really shown the world, we're destination and this is the place to have your major event," said Patterson.
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