Garth Brooks’ visit boosts downtown businesses

A number of downtown business owners received more than a memory from the half-dozen Garth Brooks concerts at Intrust Bank Arena over the weekend.

From record sales and bookings to added shifts and routes, commerce in and around downtown Wichita was bustling as the country music star played six shows from Thursday through Sunday, attracting thousands of visitors from out-of-town and lots of increased foot traffic.

“Having Garth Brooks in town surpassed all our expectations,” said Chris Arnold, owner of River City Brewery in Old Town. “We’re usually pretty busy, but we had a record week last week.

“All I can say is we’re happy we have the arena downtown.”

In the midst of what he said has been a record year, Arnold – who has owned River City since 1999 – said Saturday was the single busiest day his establishment has ever had.

“We did about 40 percent more than what a typical Saturday would bring in,” Arnold said. “When events used to be at the old (Kansas) Coliseum, we obviously didn’t see the bump that we get with Intrust Bank Arena being downtown.”

A.J. Boleski, the arena’s general manager, said more than 76,000 tickets were sold for the shows — Saturday and Sunday each featured two separate concerts — with about 60 percent of ticket-buyers coming from outside the city of Wichita.

The second show on Saturday ended at about 2 a.m. Sunday morning while the Sunday night show wrapped-up a litter earlier, Boleski said. He added that the logistics of getting people to the shows — Wichita Transit and First Student transportation provided busing from various parking locations — seemed to work well.

“We had no major hiccups,” Boleski said. “We did receive a ton of compliments, and our arena staff worked very hard and put in a lot of hours.

“From selling 65,000 tickets in 40 minutes when the shows were announced to the actual concerts, things went well.”

Jaimie Zellner of the Wichita Downtown Development Corp. said her office doesn’t yet have an estimated figure for the total economic impact of the Brooks concerts. Concert-goers from last year’s visit from country music artist George Strait brought about $3.2 million into the Wichita economy.

Tad Stricker, general manager for the Ambassador Hotel, said all 117 rooms at the hotel were sold out for the entire week. Stricker added that the hotel’s restaurant and bar, Siena Tuscan Steakhouse, was packed for most of the weekend, serving a “record number of people” from Friday through Sunday.

“Downtown was really brought to life,” Stricker said. “We certainly felt the impact here. There was a lot of foot traffic around, and a lot of energy downtown. It was great to see.”

In addition to the weekend-long spike in foot traffic, ride-share service Uber had its busiest week since entering the Wichita market in 2014, according to company spokeswoman Lauren Altmin.

In an email, Visit Wichita President Susie Santo said downtown hotels were sold out from Thursday through the weekend.

“With six concerts over a four-day period, many people shopped, dined and enjoyed themselves downtown,” Santo said. “Many restaurants extended their hours and days of operation to accommodate the Garth crowds.”

Along Douglas, Old Mill Tasty Shop owner Don Wright said his business added extra evening hours on Thursday in an effort to take advantage of the crowds downtown.

“We saw a lot of new faces,” Wright said. “We’re very happy with the weekend. There were a lot of people walking around.”

This story was originally published December 7, 2015 at 4:13 PM with the headline "Garth Brooks’ visit boosts downtown businesses."