Now that we know who is in the 2017 class at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. — Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines, Ivan Rodriguez, John Schuerholz and Bud Selig, in case you missed the recent announcement — the Albany County Convention & Visitors Bureau is preparing for Induction Weekend on July 28-30. According to the Register-Star of Hudson, N.Y., the three days of festivities produce an economic impact of $1.2 million.
“With sports fans from around the world wanting to attend the Baseball Hall of Fame Induction each year, Albany is the closest gateway city to Cooperstown, with an international airport and plenty of quality hotels for Sports Travel and Tours’ travelers to access easily,” Jay Smith, president of Sports Travel and Tours, the official licensed travel company of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, told the paper.
Here are some key numbers from 2016’s Induction Weekend, generated by the Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) Event Impact Calculator, a tool that measures the economic value of an event and calculates its return to local taxes:
1,300 room nights at area hotels in Albany County
$768,782 in direct spending at hotels, transportation, business services and more
$523,650 in indirect spending at gas stations, restaurants and more
$91,979 in local tax revenue for Albany County
The same number of hotel rooms are anticipated for this year’s event, the Register-Star reports.
The Hall of Fame offers multiple weekend packages, and a traveling “We Are Baseball” Hall of Fame Tour that began last summer in Davenport, Iowa, will continue its journey to North American cities this year.
The portable showcase features access to exhibits provided from the Hall of Fame’s vast collections, and many of the game's most iconic artifacts are on display — including the bat used by Bobby Thomson when he hit a walk-off home run in a1951 regular-season playoff, the glove worn by Willie Mays when he made his famous backwards catch in Game One of the 1954 World Series, the trophy given to Ty Cobb for his 1911 season when he led the league with a .420 batting average and the jersey worn by Roberto Clemente during his final season in 1972.
The Hall of Fame Tour’s schedule for 2017 hasn’t been released yet but will be posted here.
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