PEORIA MAGAZINE June 2022

A ballplayer swingingaLouisville Slugger bat is expected to deliver big hits in crunch time. It stands to reason that a business operating under the same name might be primed for the same. Still, nobody can honestly say they saw this coming. Certainly not in the spring of 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic in full rage and Illinois public health mandates arguably the most restrictive in the Midwest. But the numbers don’t lie. “When the Louisville Slugger Sports complex reopened in the summer of 2020, our hotel occupancy skyrocketed,” said J.D. Dalfonso, CEO of the Peoria Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Industry experts did not expect sports tourism to flourish. But because of Louisville Slugger, it did here.

“Without them, we’d have been stagnant, at best.” As COVID-19 cases soared, activity cratered. Restaurants, bars and smaller retail shops closed, some never to reopen. Travel screeched to a halt. Sports and entertainment activities were canceled. Among the businesses to take a beating was the Louisville Slugger complex, owned by central Illinois hotel magnateMark Petersen, whomaintains

a branding partnership with the world famous manufacturer of baseball and softball bats. No sports meant no rentals for practices or games, no tickets or concessions or merchandise sold. For the Petersen empire, it also meant no visitors to fill the hundreds of rooms in its five northwest side hotels. In crisis, Petersen’s management team didn’t wait to see what might happen.

JUNE 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 37