MISSOULA - The Griz football team is not in the playoffs for the first time in 18 years and according to University of Montana Athletic Director Jim O'Day, the greatest financial impact is not on the university, but rather on the community.
He says each playoff game is worth about $30,000 and the money goes into the UM's athletic fund. But this year the university won't have the cash while the community won't see as much business from those coming to watch the games.
"We get a lot of fans that come into town for a game. I know during the regular season the numbers that are showing out there are usually between five and seven million coming into the community on a Grizzly home football game," O'Day told us.
He added that when fans come into town some of them go to the game, others go shopping, go out to eat or find other things to do in Missoula.
It makes sense. In a city of 100,000 people, having 25,000 more people milling about for a football game is definitely a big boost to the local economy. If you consider that a large amount of people that have Griz season tickets live outside of the county, and the fans of the other team and Missoula is missing out on a whole lot of cash.
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