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*With two state teams playing, the FedEx Orange Bowl won't give much of a kick to the tourism industry.
By Gregg Fields
The FedEx Orange Bowl matchup between the University of Miami and Florida State has already produced one loser: the local tourism industry.
Hotel and leisure-industry experts, and local economists, say this season's intra-Florida game is barely a blip on the economic radar, in sharp contrast to a year ago, when roughly $65 million poured into the area thanks to the Orange Bowl.
Last season, tens of thousands of Iowans flooded into South Florida - and stayed for days - as their beloved Hawkeyes took on Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer and the University of Southern California. (Iowa was trounced.)
By contrast, Thursday's contest - a local team versus an in-state rival that it already played this year - means the Orange Bowl is proving a limited tourism draw. Many of the fans live within driving distance of Pro Player Stadium, and even out-of-towners may be bunking with friends and relatives.
"The philosophical among us would say, that's how the bowl bounces," said Nicki Grossman, president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau. "It's just a weakened event."
Last year, an estimated 40,000 Iowa fans hit South Florida, she said, and they filled 20,000 room nights in Broward County alone. This year, she says, reservations are running at about one-tenth that pace.
The situation is very similar in Miami-Dade. "We're looking forward to next year," says William Talbert, president of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Nobody would say it's a great windfall."
Calculating the exact impact of any bowl game is an imprecise science, and at least some cities through the years appear to have produced estimates that were part boosterism and part economics.
But no one doubts the stakes are large. The Bowl Championship Series estimated that the 28 college bowl games generate $1.1 billion in economic impact for their host communities.
What's indisputable, however, is that drawing out-of-towners is a crucial component of the economic benefits to the local community. The Orange Bowl was created during the Great Depression, specifically to draw in tourists.
Last season, the national championship match between Ohio State and Miami sent a whopping 90,000 out-of-state visitors to Arizona's Fiesta Bowl.
Officials there estimated the economic impact at $153 million, and upped it to $228 million, including related activities.
Those kinds of figures were a leading reason why local tourism officials were hoping Ohio State would be invited to the Orange Bowl - for a rematch of its overtime upset of the Hurricanes.
Indeed, before the Orange Bowl teams were announced, the Marriott hotel chain had three or four travel wholesalers interested in buying blocks of rooms.
"But when the OB announced its teams, those contracts just fell through," said Chris Bielski, a local sales executive with the hotel giant.
At the moment, "the impact of the Orange Bowl is minimal; if any at all," he added.
Next year, the Orange Bowl is slated to host the national championship game and the story may be different. The title game tends to spur a lot of economic activity even if the teams are local. For instance, New Orleans tourism officials estimate the Sugar Bowl will generate $250 million in local spending there, even though one of the teams is Louisiana State.
It isn't just about football, said Kathleen Davis, executive director of Weston's Sport Management Research Institute. The organization has compiled the economic data for previous Orange Bowl games.
"You get five or six major categories of spending," she said. Besides the obvious hotels and restaurants, visitors start going to retail centers and attractions such as Bayside Marketplace. It's not uncommon for them to take side trips.
Last year, that kind of activity "was evident at quite a number of places," she said. That's because roughly 60,000 of the 76,000 people attending the Orange Bowl weren't from South Florida. The average stay was 4.2 days, according to Davis's research. "There was a lot of spending."
In contrast, the anecdotal evidence so far suggests this year's patrons are largely locals. "We're getting a lot of one-nighters," said Grossman.
Keith Tribble, chief executive of the Orange Bowl Committee, said last year's performance is simply difficult to duplicate every year. "Last year, Iowa brought almost 40,000 people here," he said.
For the future, Grossman is hopeful that the BCS will take steps to prevent two local teams from playing each other in a bowl game.
And if there is an upside, it's that a typically rare commodity in South Florida this time of year - an affordable hotel room - is in somewhat more ample supply.
Marriott's Bielski, for instance, said his organization has offered more discounted rooms than normal. "We're not full by any means," he said.
Herald sports writer Susan Miller Degnan contributed to this report.
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