It's money in the basket for Maui
By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer
LAHAINA, Maui — The 21st annual EA Sports Maui Invitational, which concluded yesterday, has brought an average of $9 million into the Maui economy each year since it moved from the Big Island in 1986.
Michael Conroy • Special to The Advertiser
The top major-college basketball teams play in the tournament, and the game times are tailored to accommodate a primetime national television audience. The games were carried on ESPN and ESPN2.
A Tennessee fan cheers on his team in a game against Stanford in Monday's opening round of the EA Sports Maui Invitational. The tournament is worth an average of $9 million annually to Maui's economy.
"It gives us (Hawai'i) exposure across the country," said Gov. Linda Lingle, who watched the tournament from the same seats she sat in during her eight years as Maui's mayor.
"To have those hours and those images of Maui is really important. You can't pay for this kind of exposure," said Lingle, adding that the games benefit Maui sports fans as well. "From the beginning, I always thought it was so important for local people to see this caliber of competition."
But the economic impact comes mostly from visitors, including 9-year-old Evan Westbrook, who made the trip from the Mainland to root for his favorite player, North Carolina guard Raymond Felton.
Evan, a native of Cincinnati, donned a child-size Felton No. 2 jersey Monday morning as he sat in the stands at the Lahaina Civic Center.
Evan and his father, Tim, also decked out in a Carolina-blue game jersey, are die-hard Tar Heel fans, even though neither has ties to the state. Besides their team loyalty, both father and son agree that Maui beats Ohio in November. The combination of good basketball and the beauty of Maui is hard to beat, Tim Westbrook said.
"All my friends know I'm a lifelong Carolina fan and they heard I was coming out here and they said they couldn't believe anything better in the world for me, and I have to agree with them," he said as he waited four hours before the Tar Heels took the court.
"I'm watching the Heels in Hawai'i."
This year's tournament featured three nationally ranked teams in Louisville, North Carolina and Texas, along with marquee teams such as Stanford, Tennessee, Iowa and Brigham Young. Chaminade University, which competes in NCAA Division II, hosts the tournament.
According to Maui officials, more than 3,500 people travel to Maui for the three-day tournament, held every year the week of Thanksgiving.
Many are alumni and fans from the states and the cities around the schools, while others are hoops fans hoping to escape frigid fall conditions in the Midwest and on the East Coast.
"With this kind of competition, you find out real quickly where you stand," said Sam Alford, father of University of Iowa head coach Steve Alford. "It's a great experience. None of our kids have been out here (to Hawai'i) before."
Ben Woods, a 28-year-old Web engineer from Louisville, Ky., met up with family who flew in from Chicago and Seattle. He said he planned to watch the games and spend a lot of time at the beach.
"It's pretty sweet, I've never been here before," he said.
It is first-time visitors like Woods, who Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa says are key to the local economy because first-time visitors become second-time visitors.
"How many communities the size of Maui can boast one of the best tournaments in the country?" he said. "For our citizens to see this class of competition is phenomenal."
Some of the money generated by the tournament has been used to upgrade the Lahaina Civic Center, a 2,400-seat arena on a grassy knoll about a thousand yards away from Ka'anapali Beach.
In the past three years the center has added air conditioning, new floor boards and a new scoreboard.
Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8110.
