Community Thursday, December 5, 2013
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Zach Bland / Photographer
Cashing in on the Iron Bowl
Officially stated
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The two week miracle streak spikes the economy as Auburn holds two of the most legendary rivalry games in SEC Football Chandler Jones Community Editor
When it comes to SEC Football, Auburn fans put the “fan” in “fanatic.” When those fans descend on Auburn, Jordan-Hare Stadium becomes as large as the fifth most-populated city in the state. Phillip Dunlap, director of economic development for the city of Auburn, said spending is nothing short of psychological based on the team winning or losing. He compared football’s economic impact on the city as a good shot in the economy. “It’s a difference of night and day between this year and last year,” Dunlap said. “This year, Auburn is winning. People are happy. They come, and they want to tailgate. They spend a couple of days. They eat out at the restaurants, stay in hotels, see their friends. They like to hang around the campus and remember the best times of their lives.” Hans Van Der Reijden, managing director of hotel operations and educational initiatives for the Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center, said the impact of Auburn football is obvious. “A winning season versus what we experienced last year has a dramatic impact on the city,” Reijden said. The Hotel sells packages for football weekends, Reijden said, a system which started approximately 20 years ago. The package includes a minimum two-night stay for all home games. A standard room starts at $390 per night, an executive room at approximately $600 per night and suites at $1,500 per night. “You pay that, multiplied by 14 or 16, and it’s required to be pre-paid in March,” Reijden said. Guests can spend anywhere from $20,000–$25,000 simply on lodging in a single season. Approximately 150 people are on the waitlist to receive that package. “To see this year, the amount of money being spent - I mean, people are celebrating,” Reijden said. “It is just fantastic. We love it.” Reijden also said the hotel’s 236 rooms
have been booked for this year’s Iron Bowl since March 1. This year’s Iron Bowl guests arrived early to spend Thanksgiving and Black Friday in Auburn. Sarah Brown, owner of Wrapsody and treasurer of the Downtown Merchants Association, called the entire weekend a success. “Iron Bowl is huge, just huge, the traffic that’s through here,” Brown said. Brown said her boutique was fully stocked, and all products were put on display. “The businesses that are here know,” Brown said. “We know, because we have game days so often. We know this is the time that makes or breaks us. The game days are what make a lot of people’s weeks and months.” Brown said this weekend compared exactly with two years ago, but better. She said members of the DMA considered this weekend better than A-Day and the SEC Championship. Tiger Rags, a DMA business, had a 4-hour line for T-shirts. Mike Tucker, manager at Willie’s Wings and Stuff, said they received more orders this Saturday than he has ever seen. “Between Friday and Saturday, we did so much business and we have such a small kitchen, we couldn’t handle it,” Tucker said. Much to his dismay, Willie’s cut off the phones on two seperate occasions simply to catch-up. “It’s just one of those weekends,” Tucker said. “It’s been a good fall. I think everybody’s business in town is up.” The city of Auburn is the last step in the massive and weekend-long spending spree. Both Dunlap and city of Auburn finance director Penny Smith said outside the general stir football weekends create, it doesn’t have a huge impact on their jobs. “It might help from a marketing standpoint,” Dunlap said. “We can point to the success of those weekends, but generally this stuff evens out.” The city receives sales tax on a monthly basis. When Smith creates the budget,
she compares the most recent month’s figures to the same month from the previous year. Budgets are made-biannually, so Smith said weekends, even as large as these, don’t have a sizable impact on the city’s yearly budget. For every item purchased, Auburn charges 9 percent sales tax to the bill. Four percent goes to the state government, 1 percent goes to the county and 4 percent to the city. For every $1.09 spent, the city’s sales tax rate stands at 4 cents on the dollar and goes directly to the city. Dunlap said the average expenditure per family of four ranges from $750–800. Lodging tax takes 7 cents, and 1 cent of that tax is dedicated to the Convention and Visitors Bureau, also known as Auburn-Opelika Tourism Bureau. Robyn Bridges, vice president and public relations director for the bureau, said their job was to focus on ensuring visitors are well-informed on activities and accommodations. The remaining money feeds the general fund, which funds all aspects of city administration, such as police and fire services, schools, economic development, environmental services and public works. “When you bring in a lot of people coming in for games, and other things, those dollars are spent in the economy on taxable goods and services,” Dunlap said. “That’s coming from the outside into the economy. That’s why it has a strong impact on the economy.” It’s a short-range impact with focused economic gain for goods and services providers. “When we’re predicting budgets going out, we can look back, but can’t necessarily say, ‘Oh, were going to get as much as we got last year,’” Smith said. She looks as statistics, histories, trend effects, future plans and local, state and national economies to create the budget. For now, businesses are back to normal, but many such as Tucker and establishments such as Willie’s highly anticipate another interesting SEC Saturday.
DunLap
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This year, Auburn is winning. People are happy. They spend a couple of days. They eat out at the restaurants, stay in hotels, see their friends. They like to hang around the campus and remember the best times of their lives.” —Phillip Dunlap director of economic development
Any game day, obviously, we have a lot more people come into town. We work with outside agencies that come in and assist us with security, traffic direction, and things of that nature both inside and outside the stadium.” —bill james Public Safety Director
register Additional reporting by Aaron Lake, associate copy editor; and Corey Arwood, writer.
james
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The fans, surprisingly, are very well behaved. It would probably come as a surprise to people that the Iron Bowl games in the past have typically been some of the better, as far as the behavior goes.” —Paul Register Auburn Police Chief
Community Remarks
I’m your eyes and ears Chandler Jones community@ theplainsman. com
I’m a journalist and my job puts me in someone else's shoes so often my own shoes don't feel the same anymore. I see life through printsmeared glasses. Sometimes, I think I have such an objective sense of things that I feel robbed of my genuine emotion. At the same time, my day consists of thousands of things I can't unsee. Whether it be the inside of someone else's court room to an Oxford comma. These things have power. Power to manipulate my emotions and create ripples in a community. I know how much a fire truck costs and the difference between a theft of property charge and a burglary charge. I've seen men widely hated break. I was there when tears streamed down Harvey Updyke's face as he was incarcerated, and when Desmonte Leonard trembled as officers reapplied his handcuffs. I sympathize with people who don’t always deserve it, because though it’s objective,
journalists document the human condition. Things like these, that trouble and bother me, can't effect how I tell them to you. You mustn't know my pain, it isn't journalistic, isn’t ethical. But life’s behind the words we print and that's why we do it. The news affects lives. Maybe it doesn't change your job and probably won't change the outcome of two plus two, but it has the power to change your daily life. News teaches you things about your world, and my immersion through the last few semesters is unparralleled. I know how to calculate property tax. I know how much you pay. and where that money goes... by heart. I possess an innate understanding of the hierarchy of a city system. I know who controls your water — it's pressure, sanitary and bill — and when I see him on the street we stop to talk. I have met people in this town more important to life than meets the eye. Do you know who Forrest Cotton is or the city’s plans are for downtown Auburn and Opelika Road. I do, and don't worry, I've got my eye on them.
Contributed by Tim Aylsworth
A ginger bread rendition of the Auburn Village stands in the The Hotel and Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center.
Sugar, Spice and everything Auburn Pierce Ostwalt Community Writer
On Dec. 6, 2013, an annual gingerbread village display will be unveiled in the lobby of The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center. The gingerbread village, created through a partnership with the Auburn University College of Architecture, Design, Construction Master of Integrated Design and Construction Program and The Hotel and Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center. Together, they work each year to produce this annual ginger bread extravaganza. Using high-definition LiDAR technology, a remote sensory tech that measures the distance and size via a targeting laser analyzes reflected light, students of the College of Architecture and DCMIDC Program obtained exact diagrams of several buildings both on and off campus. They then constructed wooden replicas from their diagrams. After students construct a wooden frame of the buildings, The Hotel at Auburn University’s executive sous chef, Robert Mason, and his team assemble the gingerbread on top of the wooden frames by hand. “A couple of pounds of dough are used [on top of the wooden frames], but if you weigh it all together, it is close to 100 pounds of dough we have to roll up,” Mason said.
The display takes 2-3 days to assemble in the hotel and is then moved to the lobby for viewing on the day of the unveiling. Several buildings from around campus are displayed in addition to pathways made of candy. Some of the buildings include the Hotel at Auburn University, Samford Hall and the Auburn train station, accompanied by a set of train tracks leading throughout the display. Hundreds of people attend the village’s unveiling and thousands attend driving the month-long course that the display is presented to the public. The display draws people from all across Auburn, including both students and residents, in hope to see their favorite buildings. “Everyone has their own favorite, but if I had to say the Hotel would be my favorite,” Tim Aylsworth, director of sales and marketing, said with a chuckle, New buildings being added for this year’s display include the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art and the President’s house. The show will be unveiled following Auburn’s annual Christmas parade, beginning at 5 p.m. outside of the hotel on the corner of Thach Avenue and College Street. All in attendance of the parade, as well as others, are welcomed and encouraged to come to the unveiling of gingerbread village in its sixth year of construction.