Spooky Nook Sports at Champion Mill already having an economic impact on Hamilton

Jan. 14—It was seven years ago this weekend that Hamilton city officials stood on the roof of the original Spooky Nook facility in Lancaster, Penn., watching scores of cars pore into parking lots and hoping that could happen in Butler County.

While there aren’t the same number of cars that the Pennsylvania sports complex attracts today, Spooky Nook Sports owner Sam Beiler believes they will.

Hamilton City Council received an update from Beiler earlier this week about the progress of the mega-sports and events complex measuring 1.2 million square feet. It is located between North B Street and North B Street. They had started hosting events at the complex’s sports complex in November and the Champion Mill Conference Center by May 2022.

Spooky Nook Sports will host over 345,000 people from February through July. Weekend events are excluded. This doesn’t include the many people who will be at the complex throughout the week or the activities that take place at the hotel or conference center. Because organizers have already made a substantial deposit, he is confident that the events will be held over the next six month.

Beiler stated that restaurants were able to experience the Spooky Nook effect last weekend when more than 2000 people attended a one-day field hockey competition.

“That’s what we can do together as a Hamilton restaurant community and as a city-wide hospitality industry: keep talking to each other.” — Tyler McCleary, GM at Tano Bistro and a founding member of the Hamilton Amusement and Hospitality Association

Tyler McCleary, Tano Bistro’s General Manager, called last weekend “pretty strong” in an otherwise quiet month.

He said, “But if that little bit brought about what we did last Saturday, when we start getting 10,000-20,000 people in, then we expect, if at most, to be full from open to closed.” “That’s our game plan at least.”

Jim Goodman, coowner of Municipal Brew Works said that as more people visit the brewery, they will need to expand the hours at Spooky Nook, their second location.

Goodman said that “Things have definitely been ramping up, and this is only the start.” We expect foot traffic to increase as more amenities are opened, weekend tournaments occur, and the convention centre starts drawing people during the week.

Goodman anticipates that he will have to increase the hours at Spooky Nook’s taproom. As other businesses move into the complex, Municipal Brew Works, which is located at the SpookyNook, will require “full-time” hours for its second location. He said that he communicates regularly with Lisa Disbro, Spooky Nook Sports’ Corporate Director of Hospitality Operations, and her staff. “We are looking to complement each other by adapting the hours of our operation to times when it will be buzzing,” he added.

Beiler called the field hockey tourney “a very small event,” but it still caused significant waits at Hamilton’s restaurants.

Spooky Nook Sports’ economic development will be realized in large part, he stated. He also said that January would be slower than he expected, but February will have a few big events that will draw thousands of people.

It is expected that around 4,000 people will attend the Champion Mill Futsal Classic in February. This Special Olympics event is also on the agenda.

Beiler announced that the March 4 and 5, basketball events, which will attract more than 22,000 participants, is the biggest Spooky Nook Event. He said it would be that weekend that “will probably be our first largest weekend ― we’re going to have to manage traffic coming into town ― and I don’t know what to tell people about restaurants. If 2,200 people fill restaurants last weekend, then we’ll see people travel further to get restaurants or wait longer.

… [T]he economic development of Spooky Nook Sports will be realized, and it’s going to be realized quicker than we expect … — Sam Beiler, owner of Spooky Nook at Champion Mill

Beiler stated that Hamilton’s businesses and residents “will begin to see” the impact Spooky Nook has on traffic, restaurants, as well as other businesses, over the next couple of months.

“Our goal, while filling the restaurants is our goal, we apologise for any inconvenience caused to residents who have to wait longer than normal, but that’s an important part of the project. That’s driving economic development throughout the city.

McCleary explained that Spooky Nook will host larger and more elaborate events and the Hamilton Amusement and Hospitality Association, (HAHA), will serve as a resource for all businesses in the city.

McCleary, a founding member with Goodman and other city residents of HAHA, stated that “that’s the greatest thing we can do in a restaurant community as a whole industry of Hamilton is to keep talking to each other.”

McCleary suggested that anyone who is worried or unsure about how to deal with more business than they can handle should get together and create a plan. We’ve done a lot. The restaurant industry was able to weather a pandemic as a community. It was very, very difficult. We can do almost anything here if we work together.”

28 events are planned, if you count weekend events at the North B Street sports complex.

These include two recruiting weekends in April/May, which is when you “see the most serious athletes, high-performing high school athletes.” Based on his estimates, Beiler expects Spooky nook to host more than 50.000 people over the two weekend in April and last weekend in May.

He stated that the six-month-long weekend event calendar was “pretty happy” with the numbers. “Some of these organizers are people we have worked with in Pennsylvania. Others have a history in Midwest so we are very confident in their ability for these events to be delivered.”

Mayor Pat Moeller stated that they expect “a lot” of March-to-July basketball madness. That’s a lot, with many teams visiting our city. It’s incredible.”

Susan Vaughn, member of the Council, asked Beiler if they knew from where people would travel to SpookyNook. He replied that they would not know before the events.

“As soon as we approach that first large one in March, we’ll continue that so we can get at least an estimate of which direction they’ll go from and which traffic lights need to stay green a little longer.”

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CONTINUING COVERAGE

Since its inception, the Journal-News covered Spooky Nook’s growth at Champion Mill. Learn all about this mega-complex here journal-news.com.