For university towns and the local businesses that rely on college football to generate revenue, no football is yet another 2020 economic disaster on top of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Earlier this week, the Big Ten and Pac 12 conferences announced they were postponing their fall seasons until spring 2021. The news hit hard for businesses in college towns where those teams play. "The cavalry is not coming up over the hill," said Fritz Smith, the CEO of Happy Valley Adventure Bureau, which promotes tourism near Penn State's campus."[Local businesses] have got to hunker down and try to figure out how to survive without much customer base coming in.
"Having grown up in State College, I personally see the downtown businesses taking a significant hit and I hope our local community does its part to support all of these businesses."About 60%-65% of visits to the area have some connection to Penn State. The football team is"a big chunk of that," according to Smith, who estimates that Penn State football alone generates about 8%-9% of all visitor spending in the local community.
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