Thursday’s decision by the NCAA to cancel its winter Division III championships this year resulted in another loss for Fort Wayne, which was set to host the men’s basketball championship game. Such losses to Fort Wayne’s tourism industry caused by COVID-19 totaled nearly half a billion dollars last year.
“We estimate we lost $475 million in tourism sales between March and December from canceled conventions, sporting events and leisure visitors,” according to Dan O’Connell, president/CEO of Visit Fort Wayne.
O’Connell did have some good news.
“We hosted several sports competitions that moved from Michigan or Ohio because Indiana was ‘open.’ Every sports venue increased cleaning, mandated…