Aggieland’s economy benefitting from the Brazil vs. Mexico Soccer game

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – With thousands expected to come to Aggieland the weekend of the Mexico vs Brazil soccer game, the hospitality industry will be benefitting.

The game is over a month out and hotels in Bryan-College Station are either almost or completely booked that June 8th weekend.

Texas A&M Hotel and Conference Center General Manager, Greg Stafford, said even though they had several rooms already booked for that weekend, what was left booked up fast.

He compared the skyrocket of bookings as if there was a Texas A&M Football game that weekend.

“We sold what we had immediately,” said Stafford. “Boom it was gone!”

Stafford said when the game was announced, calls were ringing off the hook. and now they’re adding staff.

“We’ve added probably 2 or 3 to our reservations team, but more importantly what happens as these events come in is we have to add additional staff to service those events,” said Stafford.

Hilton College Station and Conference Center General Manager, Jose Otero, said they’re completely booked the night before the game and they’re at 98% capacity the night of the 8th.

“This being a social international game, we are expecting a lot of people traveling from Houston, Dallas, Austin, all these closer communities where that basically following the soccer games,” said Otero.

Otero said they’ve increased their prices by 30% compared to their average one-night stay.

“Around the $300-$400 rate per that night, and basically that’s what we got for that weekend going on,” said Otero.

Both hotels have a busy summer as they’re gearing up for President George H.W. Bush’s 100th birthday celebration and the George Straight concert at Kyle Field.

Restaurants are also bringing in extra revenue.

With thousands of students leaving the area over the summer, months like June and July are slower than the rest of the year. But that won’t be the case of the weekend of June 8th.

The Texas Restaurant Association said any large sporting event like this presents the opportunity for restaurants to welcome new faces, compensating those slower months.

”Every $1 that gets spent at a local restaurant actually contributes $2.35 to the local economy. So this is a massive opportunity again not just for our local restaurants but for the economy within the community,” said Christina Garavaglia, the Executive Director of the Southeast Texas Restaurant Association region.

Napa Flats Wood-Fired Kitchen off Texas Avenue is excited about that extra income.

”The summer is typically a little slower than the school years for us. I’m hoping that both of these days bring in a lot of traffic that is not usual for the restaurant, I mean not only the revenue side of it, but new faces coming in,” said Adrian Pulliam, the manager at Napa Flats.

Napa Flats told KBTX they’re bringing in extra furniture to support the volume of customers they’re expecting that weekend.

The BCS Chamber of Commerce says this weekend will heavily impact the economy.

“The fact that we have people coming in internationally for this event over the weekend, or staying a little bit longer possibly, coming in, spending money here locally. That money gets turned around because it’s going to get spent by the restaurant owners, hotel owners, they’re paying their staff, they’re going out there eating meals at other local venues. the money will just turn over 2 or 3 times,” said Glen Brewer, the CEO of the BCS Chamber of Commerce.