News Local/State

Urbana Council OKs Contribution To Tournament Bid Package

By Jim Meadows
 

The City of Urbana will contribute $5,000 a year for five years, if Champaign-Urbana succeeds in winning a contract with the Illinois High School Association to bring back the Illinois Boys’ High School Basketball Tournament.

The Urbana City Council voted 6 to nothing at a special meeting Monday night to contribute to the bid package coordinated by the University of Illinois and the tourism agency Visit Champaign County.

Urbana’s $5,000-a-year pledge is on par with contributions from Savoy and Rantoul ---- and just one tenth of the city of Champaign’s $50,000 pledge.

Mayor Laurel Prussing had opposed any contribution, citing the recent loss of tax revenue from Carle Hospital. But council members overruled her.

The mayor’s Chief of Staff, Mike Monson, said in a memo to the council that the small contribution was appropriate, given his estimate for how much hotel-motel tax revenue the tournament would generate.

But Alderman Eric Jakobsson said during the meeting that the money generated would be larger, once sales tax revenue was included.

Peoria has hosted the state high school boys’ basketball tournament since 1996, but their current contract with the IHSA expires in March. Champaign-Urbana hosted the tournament from 1919 to 1995.