JEFFERSONVILLE — Along with the close of the regular season for men’s NCAA basketball last week was the end of the inaugural basketball season for the KFC Yum! Center.

A multitude of other events will be hosted at the $238-million downtown Louisville arena during the remainder of the year, but the bulk of the economic impact can begin to be measured. The expectation for businesses in downtown Louisville when the arena opened in October was that for each event there would be a residual boost in business.

According to an economic impact study released in 2009 by CityVisions Associates, it was estimated the new arena would generate more than $2 billion in investment — including the arena itself — that would be made in downtown Louisville.

Businesses on the north bank of the Ohio River were also looking to capitalize on the events at the 22,000-seat facility, especially on Jeffersonville’s Restaurant Row.

The early returns suggest the arena is a positive economically for Indiana, but the extent of which is still not fully defined.



Business benefit

Tom Kapfhammer, general manager and proprietor of Rocky’s Sub Pub, said the restaurant likely saw 15 percent growth, on average, over the same time period last year.

But the affect of the arena was not felt immediately.

“It took a little time to develop,” he said. “As the season wore on, [business] picked up.”

For the first few games at the Yum! Center, businesses in downtown Louisville and across the river in Jeffersonville were in wait-and-see mode.

While an impact was felt, Jeffersonville business owners said they drew in their customers more from their reputation rather than from overcrowding in downtown Louisville.

“Without a doubt, traffic around gameday and concerts is definitely increased,” said Wes Johnson, co-owner of Buckhead Mountain Grill. “We don’t consider business we’ve gotten as overflow.”

Initial expectations for the businesses along Jeffersonville’s restaurant row was that they would bring in customers that wanted to avoid high traffic and high volume across the river.

However, the masses did not overwhelm Louisville as expected. Kapfhammer said parking in downtown Louisville was not much of an issue, as games were generally on nights where there wasn’t a high-traffic demand in downtown otherwise.

As a result, fans headed to the game were not diverted to Jeffersonville in order to patronize a restaurant before a game. but the lack of traffic jams may have added to patrons’ willingness to frequent the businesses along Restaurant Row.

“I think as the season went on, I think people figured out traffic’s not that bad, we can swing by and get a bite to eat and still make it across the Second Street bridge in time for the game,” Kapfhammer said.

He added that another benefit to the restaurants was that the games often coincided with slower nights for the restaurants, boosting their sales.



Cashing in on concerts

Patrick Gregory, general manager at the Sheraton Louisville Riverside Hotel, which sits near Rocky’s and Buckhead, said the hotel booked a few extra rooms as a result of the basketball games at the arena, which came mostly from fans of the opposing team.

Gregory said the hotel offered transportation packages and some group block discounts for those attending events at the Yum! Center. While a benefit was had, he could not quantify the boost in sales.

“We felt some impact, but the majority of people were locally driven,” he said of those attending events at the arena.

Tom Lambert, lecturer in economics at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany, echoed the sentiment in a previous report.

“The biggest impact is if [the arena] brings people outside of the metro area,” Lambert said. “The local fans, at least in the short-run, will substitute one expense for another. It won’t be millions of dollars or hundreds of jobs, but there will be a boost.”

Now that the basketball season has ended, Gregory expects to see business pick up.

“As we get into the post-basketball season is when we’ll see the uptick,” he said.

Gregory said concerts, more than the basketball games, have had an affect on the hotels near Jeffersonville’s waterfront. The increase in people comes from visitors from out-of-town wanting to see acts like the Eagles — the band that headlined the inaugural event in the Yum! Center — or youthful acts like Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga.

“This weekend is going to be two times as busy as we were last year,” Gregory said before Gaga played a week ago.



Transportation troubles

The economic benefit felt by local businesses was still not enough to keep all plans centered around the KFC Yum! Center afloat. In an attempt to offer an alternative to parking in Louisville and dealing with the heavy crowds, the city of Jeffersonville sponsored a water taxi for nine basketball games.

The plan was to carry patrons across the Ohio River via the Louisville-based Spirit of Jefferson at a price of $10 for a round trip. To cover the costs incurred to operate the water taxi, city officials said they needed to transport 400 people across the Ohio River each game to break even financially.

In service for only two months — nine out of the 11 home games — the taxi was discontinued at the end of December. For the last three games the water taxi was in operation it had 12, 24 and 40 people use the service. The reason for the lack of fans using the water taxi was that traffic and parking issues in downtown Louisville weren’t as bad as expected.

Kapfhammer suggested the water taxi would have done better if it had been able to hold on until later in the season.

“I used it all the time,” he said. “I loved it.”

But Jeffersonville was not covering its rental costs and decided to discontinue the service.

Whether or not a similar transportation option will be offered in the future is unknown, but both Kapfhammer and Johnson supported bringing back a similar concept.