The Des Moines area economy is expecting a big boost in the coming days as the Nationwide NASCAR race rolls into Newton and Junior Olympic Athletes head to downtown Des Moines.
The Junior Olympics alone will bring in an estimated $25 million, roughly five times more than the amount that the Drake Relays generate every year.
Massive tents are already going up in the middle of Drake University's stadium for the Junior Olympics. At Veterans Memorial Auditorium, souvenirs are being unpacked as organizers await a flurry of activity.
"It's unprecedented on the sporting side and, for all intents and purposes, on the events side, period," said Al Lorenzen of the Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Starting Friday, teenagers playing table tennis and trampoline experts from across America will converge on Des Moines for the Amateur Athletic Union's National Junior Olympics.
"There will be almost 8,500 kids competing in track and field alone at Drake Stadium," Lorenzen said. "Almost 3,500 to 4,000 kids will be here at the Iowa Events Center."
Veterans Auditorium will have baton twirling. Hy-Vee Hall will have weight lifting and wrestling. Dozens of other venues around Des Moines will be busy as well.
It's what the athletes and their fans will be doing away from the venues that has businesses across the city so excited.
"We'll be sold out for the next several days with the Junior Olympics as well as the Newton race," said Rick Gaede of the Renaissance Savery Hotel.
Hotels are packed all the way to Pella, sold out at the time that the economy hasn't been kind to most people in the hospitality industry.
"Across the country, east and west coast, they're experiencing the same thing," Gaede said. "July has just been very soft."
Since the athletes are children, many parents are making this trip their summer vacation.
"Not only just hotel rooms, " Gaede said. "It also helps our restaurants, our bar, and I know the entire downtown is looking forward to all the restaurants being full with all the Junior Olympics in town."
The Junior Olympics will dwarf even the NCAA women's basketball tournament last year. It's expected to drop about five times more money than that event did.
Des Moines has locked up the Junior Olympics for two more appearances, in 2014 and 2019.
Newton is expected to quadruple in size over the weekend when the Nationwide NASCAR race comes to the Iowa Speedway.
"We've got fans coming from 25 states," said speedway general manager Craig Armstrong.
The track had to add an extra 25,000 temporary seats to boost the seating capacity to 55,000. The speedway's second-largest race, the Iowa Corn Indy 250, drew about 40,000 earlier this year.
Campgrounds near the track are already filling up and hotel rooms in the area are hard to come by.
