Visit Annapolis and Anne Arundel County (VAAAC) is reporting a crowd of 32,832 football fans attended the Military Bowl, which was held at U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Stadium, on a rainy New Year’s Eve afternoon in Annapolis.
The clash, won by the University of Cincinnati over Virginia Tech by a score of 35-31, outdrew more than a dozen other bowl games around the country, and its economic impact in the community was pronounced: four local hotels were fully booked on the Dec. 29 and 30, with eight sold out on Dec. 31; in addition, a half-dozen more, a number of which are located in the BWI Business District/Arundel Mills area, reached (or were close to) 75% occupancy.
“We’re blessed that, at a time of the year when traffic slows, restaurants are quiet and hotels have low occupancy, that we become an exciting destination again for three nights during the Military Bowl,” said Connie Del Signore, president and CEO of VAAAC. “I’m hopeful we’ll continue to host this bowl game in the years to come. It means dollars. That means people will continue to be employed after the busy holiday season. And it means new money that comes into the community that would otherwise not be here.”