The win was a particularly sweet for Miami, which beat Ohio State University and the University of Nebraska before falling to Bethel on Saturday in the prelude to Sunday’s championship game.
“I think it was really great that we have a crowd here who can support us as the home team,” said Miami student and Talawanda grad Caitlin Carlin as she exited the ice moments after the victory. “We lost to this team yesterday, so it’s great to come and beat them with a shutout today.”
The championship drew more than 1,000 people to Butler County, about 500 of them participants on 33 collegiate, co-recreational and men’s teams from Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, according to John Mihalik, assistant director of programming for Goggin Ice Center.
Launched in 1999 and typically held in Minnesota, the championship event was Ohio’s second. Cleveland suburb Westlake hosted in 2006.
The tournament was projected to have generated about $425,000 in dining, lodging and other tourist-related activity, according to Jason Williams, senior sales manager for sports and events at the Butler County Visitors Bureau.
“On a very moderate scale,” the event was projected to draw $50,000 for the city of Oxford alone, according to Jessica Greene, director of the Oxford Visitors Bureau.
“We welcome these events and do our best efforts to make them feel welcome,” Greene said. “We have signs up at area hotels saying ‘Welcome Broomball Players’ and that type of thing.”
MU boasts more than 100 intramural teams, while Cincinnati Broomball Association has more than 300 players and Dayton Broomball Association has an outdoor league of 18 teams, according to Jeff Downs, a Miami University alumnus and DBA’s president. In addition, Indianapolis and Columbus, Ind., both have teams and OSU started a program in 2011.
“There’s a pretty big presence in the region,” Downs said. “A lot of it is because the students play here at Miami intramurals and then go out and continue playing after school.”
Downs worked with USA Broomball, the Goggin Ice Center and a local committee to bring the championship to the region.
“They really recognized the good job that we’ve done with the broomball organizations … so they wanted us to be able to host it here,” said Downs.
George and Jody Spaeth of Mason said it was great to be able to root for the Miami team, which includes their son, Taylor, a freshman, without having to drive very far.
“You don’t realize what a big deal it is until you see all the parents and all the schools come from all over,” George Spaeth said. “This was just broomball to us and now it’s a national championship.”
Broomball’s enduring appeal is that its “a nice combination of some other sports,” including soccer and hockey, said Andrew Boddorff, a player of the co-recreational team DC Nomadic Horde
‘It’s a fun alternative that I think is accessible because there’s no ice skating requirements,” he said.
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