Upstate New York Basketball Stimulus Package

Syracuse, Binghamton, Cornell, Siena, Niagara and Buffalo could all be in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.  What a great year for Division I Upstate New York basketball in a terrible year for the economy.

Although UB needs to win the Mid-American Conference Championship tonight to punch its ticket and Niagara must wait for Selection Sunday, all of the aforementioned teams have had tremendous seasons and deserve to be in the Big Dance.

Even if UB and Niagara do not make it, the economic impact created by the buzz around all these teams will be interesting to measure, especially with the current state of the economy. How many more tickets were sold? How much more merchandise was sold? How many more meals and hotel rooms were sold? How much did applications increase at those schools because of national exposure? How many more dollars did alumni donate?

The answers to the above questions will provide the quantitative proof of the impact of success on the basketball court, but what could be of even more importance is the measurement of the enhancement of community image and visibility. Sports teams are highly visible images of universities, communities, cities and regions. Success of sports teams have proven to provide millions of dollars worth of positive public relations in addition to direct economic dollars.

With Upstate New York, especially Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany and Binghamton, being particularly hard hit during this recession and unemployment approaching double figures in many cities, Division I college basketball success just might be the stimulus package its communities are looking for.