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Country music superstar Garth Brooks will perform at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln this August. It’s the first concert in the stadium in 34 years. NET reports on the economic impact to the town.
Game days in the Memorial Stadium bring an extra $5 million per football weekend, according to Director of the Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau Jeff Maul. He said the bureau is excited to host the Garth Brooks tour in Lincoln.
"You look at an event like this and go, 'Can we reach $5 million in economic impact from a concert like this?' You bet we can," he said. "It's certainly going to open things up. It's great news for our hotels, it's great news for our restaurants."
Maul said the concert will bring people from across the state and Midwest region. With up to 60,000 people possibly attending, he plans to schedule other events around the concert.
"We want people to come in early," he said. "We want them to stay a few days on the backside and really talk about, the performing arts, the great shopping, the great destination that we are."
But Maul said the business boom depends entirely on how confident travelers feel by August.
"It's up to people really being comfortable traveling again and enjoying a community," he said. "I really think we can build value in the destination to not only get people for one night, but multiple nights, certainly compounding and pushing the economic impact on the higher end."
The director said the Lincoln concert is a needed economic boost, and a celebration of the return to large events, and country music.