Pub Crawl Coverage

The pub crawl was front page news in today's Noblesville Daily Times, complete with a nice photo of County Chair Rob Place talking with a BW3's patron about the 1% food & beverage taxes.

One series of quotes in the article is worth highlighting and discussing:

Place said no one in Hamilton County is buying the argument that regional
establishments will benefit from the increase in business brought in from Colts
fans.

"The argument that they're going to be going to a Colts game, then driving
20 miles away up to, say, Noblesville for a beer after a game is hogwash.
They'll stay in downtown Indianapolis," Place said.

...

County Council member Judith Levine also disagreed that local eateries
won't benefit from the tax.

"This stadium and convention center expansion will bring bigger and better
conventions here, and we do get the overflow. We do benefit," she said.

I actually have the experience of having come from Cleveland to Indianapolis for a convention. My hotel stay was not downtown, but in the north side of Indy, near I-465 and Keystone. Not once did I go for a meal or a drink in Nora or at Castleton, which were right around the corner, let alone journey up to Carmel, Westfield, Noblesville, or Sheridan.

In fact, most of the meals were served right in the Convention Center itself. They were catered. On a three-day convention, I recall eating two meals outside of the Convention Center- one at the Slippery Noodle, and another at Champs.

My experience was a typical convention experience. If you aren't familiar with the metropolitan area you are visiting, you won't venture. It will be the exceptionally rare conventioneer who eats a meal in Cicero, or in Atlanta. It's just a load of BS to suggest that there is a huge benefit to suffering this tax in Hamilton County.