Philly News Briefs: 3/11/16
1.) Philadelphia has secured yet another national event, putting the city on America’s radar. The NCAA’s East Regionals are coming to town in two weeks, during which one of college basketball’s Final Four will be determined. Have you been watching your brackets? The game will go down at the Wells Fargo Center. It’s not unusual for basketball to pass through Philly during March Madness: Philadelphia has hosted the second-most NCAA finals games ever, right behind Kansas City. Larry Needle, the executive director of PHL Sports, said that, no matter what teams end up playing in the Philly game, it’s a guarantee that loyal fans will show up to support them. As he pointed out, there are plenty of students and other fans making road trips to watch “their” teams compete. According to Needles, the game will attract some 17,000 visitors and hundreds of members of the media, all of whom will need a place to stay. It’s expected that the East Regionals will fill 10,000 hotel rooms.
For Philadelphia citizens and residents, it’s going to be a very happy St. Patrick’s Day indeed!
2.) We already know that Philadelphia is considered one of the best cities in the country to visit, and boasts some of the highest quality of life for residents. Now, the City of Brotherly Love has ranked high on another listicle: WalletHub’s “Best & Worst Cities for St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations.” Philadelphia achieved a rank of number 4 on the list. WalletHub noted in a blog post that it considered the biggest 100 cities in the United States, and evaluated them on several shamrock-a-riffic criteria: St. Patrick’s Day traditions, costs, safety & accessibility, and St. Patrick’s Day weather. The city’s Irish population was also taken into account, along with the average price for a potato. In each category, cities scored between 0 (worst) and 100 (best), and then scores were tallied and averaged. According to Philly.com, “Philly hit 11th place for St. Patrick’s Day traditions, 29th for cost, 6th for safety and accessibility, and 7th for weather. And, as one WalletHub analyst told CBS3, with an Irish population of roughly 12 percent, the city ranks 15th overall in that category.” Not surprisingly, Boston, with its rich Irish/St. Paddy’s Day traditions, swept the number one spot on the list.
