AKRON, Ohio – The Ohio High School Athletic Association has voted to move the state baseball tournament to Canal Park. The three-day tournament starts June 7, a week after Akron hosts the state softball tournament at Firestone Stadium, and the back-to-back events are expected to be an economic boom for the area.

“We’re thrilled,” said James E Mahon II, vice president of marketing and brand management of the Akron/Summit Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The ASCVB worked with the RubberDucks and Canal Park to curate and present information to the OHSAA about “all our community assets as far as attractions and dining,” Mahon said.

The state baseball tournament had been held at Huntington Park in Columbus, home of the Clippers, since the stadium opened in 2009, OHSAA spokesman Tim Stried said in a news release. The Clippers have home games during the weekend of the tournament and the scheduling conflict prompted a change of venue.

“We looked at many sites, but for several reasons, including similar schedule conflicts at other locations, we believe that Canal Park is the best choice,” OHSAA Executive Director Jerry Snodgrass said in a statement.

The 2019 football finals will remain in Canton at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. Canton hosted the championships in 2017 and 2018 since leaving Ohio Stadium in Columbus in 2016, Stried said.

The girls’ softball tournament will be held May 29 to June 1 at Firestone Stadium, where the event has been held for about a decade, Mahon said.

In 2018, the state softball tournament conservatively generated $1.5 million for the local community, based on the number of people who travelled to Akron and the amount of booked hotel rooms, Mahon said.

“The way that we generate the economic impact of any event is through our CRM [customer relationship management] program,” Mahon said. “We plug in our multipliers, and those vary based on the number of people coming.”

ASCVB won’t be able to do those equations until they know what teams qualify, which will influence whether people are coming in from out of town, Mahon said. But if the state softball is an indication, the baseball tournament will bring thousands of dollars to Akron’s economy.

“What we’re hoping to do as the Convention & Visitors Bureau is leverage all that momentum and excitement” from the softball tournament and carry that energy into the June 7 through 9 baseball tournament, Mahon said.

The bureau is still planning special events and activities, which may include softball players sticking around – or baseball players arriving early – to watch the other athletes, Mahon said. ASCVB is hoping it make it a positive and memorable experience.

“We appreciate the confidence [OHSAA officials] have in our destination, and we intend to exceed their expectations,” Mahon said.