There have been die-hard backers of the project and a significant number of naysayers, but Goodman said the talk of Spooky Nook’s potential was backed up this weekend and showed a glimpse of what the facility can offer the city’s small businesses.
There will be more tests to come as 2023 progresses ― including a six-week span starting at the end of March where Hamilton can expect to see weekend tournaments and events at Spooky Nook draw crowds in the five figures ― but Goodman said, “We finally saw everything come to fruition this (past) weekend.”
Municipal Brew Works had its best weekend in a February in its seven-year history, and Basil 1791 ownership told City Manager Joshua Smith it had back-to-back record sales.
“The impact of a medium-size Spooky Nook tournament had many of our small businesses with substantially increased, or record sales,” Smith said. “As the number of participants at the Nook increase in the coming months, we will need to ensure communication and coordination with our residents and businesses is paramount.”
Hamilton Director of Engineering Rich Engle said his staff was on-scene Saturday morning for the first wave of traffic, which he said was “heavier than normal.”
“There was 20 minutes of backup and the rest of the time it flowed smoothly,” said Engle. “The major traffic issue occurred for about 30 minutes with significant gridlock when the first wave was leaving and the second wave was arriving.”
The City of Hamilton has spent the better part of a year installing its new $6 million Centracs network, a centralized adaptive traffic computer system designed to recognize traffic issues and adjust the timing of priority signal intersections along the High-Main corridor. The system will be fully installed when 70 non-priority intersections (which aren’t part of the adaptive system) are integrated later this year.
The Hamilton Police Department had officers on-site at that time, and Engle said his staff, the police department, and Spooky Nook officials are meeting this afternoon to have a debriefing with regards to everyone’s observations and determine improvements for the next big event.
Spooky Nook will host its Sweetheart SMASH Youth Basketball Tournament this weekend, but the next big event will be March 4 and 5 when an outside organizer brings in a basketball tournament expected to attract more than 22,000 people.
Scott Rodgers, general manager at Spooky Nook Sports at Champion Mill, said it “was exciting” to see so many people flow through the doors from across the region for the youth and adult volleyball tournaments, as well as the two events held at the Champion Mill Conference Center on Saturday.
In total, 191 youth teams and 15 adult teams participated in the tournaments.
“This (past) weekend’s tournaments were a great test and achievement for us,” said Scott Rodgers, general manager at Spooky Nook Sports at Champion Mill. “After many years of development and planning, we were finally able to see our facility in action as it was intended.”
Rodgers said there were a few “hiccups” since the 1.2 million-square-foot facility is still in its infancy, but added, “We now have a better understanding of how people flow through the parking lots, area roads, and our building itself.”
The huge weekend for Hamilton businesses is setting a higher bar in the near future, said Goodman, “and I think you’re going to see those numbers just going up.”
Though the weekend was full of positives for the city’s small business community with record sales, there are some challenges, Goodman said.
“There are going to be growing pains, and I think everybody knows it,” he said. “But I think once you start seeing the successes, it becomes a lot easier to swallow when it comes to the traffic and to getting around town.”
Dinner reservations were difficult for patrons to make because there were so many people in town most of the restaurants were just booked solid
“Going out to get something to eat wasn’t as easy as it was in the past,” Goodman said. “There are going to be growing pains, and you’re going to have people that are going to constantly complain of the negative, and you’re just going to have to deal with that. But I think some of these successes are going to make it a lot easier to handle.”
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