General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCollege towns could be facing economic disaster this fall if Covid 19 shuts down their campuses.
Its going to be even worse if some of these towns dont have college football this fall. A typical football weekend at a Power 5 school can bring in 15 million or more in local economic activity. Multiply that by 7 home games, and youre talking about these towns losing over 100 million dollars just from football season.
https://smartasset.com/checking-account/college-towns-most-vulnerable-during-covid19-2020
Though efforts to slow the spread of coronavirus across the U.S. have squeezed many local economies and the bank accounts of their residents, college towns are among the most vulnerable. They are confronting potentially major losses in population and revenue if students do not return to campus. Even in towns where schools have decided to allow students back in the fall, there may continue to be dampened demand for typical collegiate expenditures such as eating out and attending sports games.
In this study, SmartAsset uncovered places that are most dependent on the presence and spending habits of undergraduate populations. We compared 95 college towns with populations of 50,000 or more across six metrics. We looked at students as a percentage of the population, college staff as a percentage of workers, as well as four other metrics focused on local businesses reliance on college student and parent/guardian spending concentration of restaurants & bars, entertainment establishments, bookstores and hotels. For details on our data sources and how we put all the information together to create our final rankings, check out the Data and Methodology section below.
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greenjar_01
(6,477 posts)Even on the ridiculously off chance (less than 3%) that there are any games, they will certainly not be played with crowds.
Nobody is packing bars and restaurants in Ann Arbor or State College or Ames or Athens.
It's over. People need to wrap their heads around the new reality.
dalton99a
(81,637 posts)ProfessorGAC
(65,248 posts)...the cities are fairly small.
The 2 on the list from Illinois are truly college towns, especially Champaign. Bloomington/Normal has State Farm & Mitsubishi.
I looked up several of them, and the numbers were from 40,000-150,000.
Makes sense that the towns are economically dependent on the schools.
dalton99a
(81,637 posts)The facility was sold in liquidation to an electric truck startup
ProfessorGAC
(65,248 posts)Now that you say it, I remember that.
Forgot about that originally.
In fact, I'm not even sure where it was down there.
I know where the State Farm HQ is, though.
dweller
(23,682 posts)interesting that Chapel Hill (GO HEELS!) ranks there at #8
yet Durham (Duke) nor Raleigh (NC State) does not and both of these cities have larger populations and have had high infection rates already ...
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