Andrew Rettenmaier Discusses Shortened Aggie Football Season Effects on KBTX

Summary: Andrew Rettenmaier, PERC’s executive associate director, spoke to KBTX on Tuesday, August 11, 2020 on the effects of a diminished Texas A&M University football season would have on the local economy.
 
Currently, Texas A&M is slated to host just five home games this season at 50% of stadium capacity. This news comes on the heels of two other conference announcements  - the cancellation of The Big Ten and Pac-12 games due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
 
A shorter football season could spell another hardship for industries that normally rely on stronger revenues during those months.
 
“If we think from June on and if hotel revenues are down let’s say 50%, we’ll see that overall, the course of the year hotel revenues will be down about 49%. Suppose hotel revenues are just 25% of their 2019 numbers, then over the course of the year, we’ll see revenues for 2020 down about 63% relative to 2019. It’s important to remember that during football season about 30% of the revenues for the hotels in the local community come in during September, October, November,” said Rettenmaier.  
 
Read the KBTX news article here.