The city of Bryan’s Legends Events Center is nearing the end of its second year of operation.
An update during the Bryan city council’s July 9th meeting included statistics showing growth in all performance areas.
The director the Destination Bryan tourism office, John Friebele, says the economic impact of Legends through the first nine months of the fiscal year is over $23 million dollars. That’s compared with $15 million from the prior fiscal year.
The number of events has increased from 19 to 25, resulting in an increase of participants from 48,000 to 73,000.
The council was told that Legends supports more than 10,000 jobs and generates more than $482,000 dollars in tax revenue.
Friebele said Legends generated nearly 20,000 nights stayed in hotels through the first nine months of the fiscal year. That’s an increase of more than 3,000 from the year before.
Bryan hotels get 39 percent of the room nights associated with events at the Legends Center, while College Station gets 61 percent of the room nights.
Friebele said there is a need for more rooms that can hold four guests to accommodate sports tourism.
One issue brought up during the council’s discussion is security. Legends general manager Jamie Cox says the new Brazos Valley Youth Sports Association will be hiring private security following curfew issues earlier this year that resulted in calls from councilmembers to police.
Cox says Legends is also on the radar of private security hired by the city.
Click below to hear comments from the July 9, 2024 Bryan city council meeting.