WILMINGTON — The Wells Fargo Tournament has come and gone, but what sort of impression has it left on Wilmington business?
Answers vary but, to many, it seems that it was a success. After a slow start to the week, business owners said the Port City saw a large influx of people once the weekend arrived. Despite the cooler temperatures and some heavy rain, people turned out for the various events going on around town.
In addition to the PGA event, there was also a large “One Tree Hill” convention and UNCW’s graduation over the weekend.
Wilmington Downtown Inc. (WDI) hosted a series of events throughout the week entitled, ‘Play A Round, Downtown.’ Unfortunately the weather didn’t fully cooperate, and heavy rain forced them to cancel their free movie night on Thursday, and cooler temperatures made for a lackluster turn out to their events Friday and Saturday.
“The way the tournament kind of fell out with the rain happening Thursday night and Friday morning, it forced a very long day for many people on Saturday,” Ed Wolverton, president and CEO of WDI, said.
He noted the tournament was forced to start earlier, and end later, wearing a lot of people down in the process.
“We would have liked to see even more people in downtown taking advantage of the business’ and attractions,” Wolverton said. “But, at the same time, we were really pleased with how everything came together. We certainly could have accommodated more people, but, at the end of the day I think we did fine, I really think we did.”
Margo Bebraggi, manager at The Black Cat Shoppe on Front Street, was initially disappointed with the way business was going last week. She speculated that with much of the foot traffic on the North side of town, where most of the parking for the tournament shuttles was located, business’s farther into downtown were being missed.
But, that changed with the arrival of “One Tree Hill” fans converging on the Port City for a large convention. According to Bebraggi, “It was definitely better this weekend.”
“It was a pretty profitable and productive weekend here,” Bebraggi said. “It was mainly the “One Tree Hill” convention for us, lot’s of locals too, but definitely a profitable weekend.”
Other downtown business’ echoed her sentiments.
Last Wednesday, The Museum of the Bizarre employee David Porter reported one of the slowest days he’d ever worked. According to Manager Teresa Anderson, that changed once the weekend hit.
“We had a very profitable weekend,” Anderson said. “I know we had a few people from the (WDI) scavenger hunt show up, we’re missing quite a few of the golf tees.”
Debbie Pacheco, of Wilmington Water Tours, said the company had actually made more in one day this weekend than the rest of the week.
Area restaurants stayed busy throughout the week. Gabbi Santos at Beer Barrio on Front Street said it was the busiest weekend she had ever worked.
“We had a huge influx of customers as soon as the weekend hit,” Santos said.
According to Mitchel Provens with Tailwind Concessions, their newest restaurant, Scratch on 23rd, in the ILM Business Park held “very solid sales throughout the week.”
“I can’t specifically say that there was a direct correlation between the tournament and our sales increase, but between the One Tree Hill convention, UNCW graduation and the Wells Fargo, I have to believe that those events probably played a role,” Provens said.
“I think we showed very well as a community, and as downtown,” Wolverton said. “It’s kind of the old adage, ‘it’s better to be over prepared than under prepared!'”
If called upon again, Wolverton thinks Wilmington will be ready.
“This was the first time we’ve ever done anything like this, in terms of the golf tournament and catering to that crowd,” Wolverton said. “It was good week overall.”
