Morgantown-area hotels booked for Coal Bowl

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - With the West Virginia University-Marshall football game less than a week away, rooms at Morgantown hotels are booked.

As is usually the case on football weekends, room rates are up and some hotels are requiring two-night minimum stays.

The scheduling of the game on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend apparently has not deterred fans from planning trips, said Peggy Myers-Smith, executive director of the Greater Morgantown Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"Hotels routinely sell out for any home game," she said.

Many have a two-day minimum stay requirement during home games, said B.J. Rochinich, assistant general manager at the Clarion Hotel Morgan downtown.

The historic hotel also has a two-day minimum stay and is sold out for both Saturday and Sunday, he said.

"We sell out almost a year in advance for home football games."

The hotel is on High Street near WVU's downtown campus, and Rochinich said rooms sell out almost as soon as the season's football schedule is released.

Like many others in the area, the Clarion Hotel Morgan increases its nightly rate when the Mountaineers play at home.

A regular weekend rate starts at $125, Rochinich said. On football weekends the rate goes to $208.99, Rochinich said.

The Waterfront Place Hotel also sells out its 205 rooms as soon as the fall football schedule is released, said Aly Goodwin Gregg, a spokeswoman.

"And we're sold out for every game except for the Norfolk State game," she said. "And I only have a handful of rooms available then."

The Mountaineers will square off against the Spartans of Norfolk State on Sept. 10.

Gregg said it was unusual for the Waterfront Place Hotel to have any rooms available during a WVU home game even if the Mountaineers are playing a smaller school from the Football Championship Subdivision.

Waterfront Place typically requires a two-day minimum for home games, Gregg said. However, since the Marshall game was moved from its normal Saturday to a Sunday, that requirement was lifted, she said.

Game weekend rates at the Waterfront average $259 per night, she said. Rates for other weekends start at $139 and go up to $189 for a King suite, according to the hotel's website.

The hotel has events scheduled for the weekend of the Mountaineers' opening game against the Thundering Herd. The Bob Huggins Fish Fry will be held Friday starting at 6 p.m.

The fish fry is a way to raise money for the Remember the Miners Scholarship and the Norma Mae Huggins Cancer Research Endowment, Gregg said. Members of the Mountaineers Men's Basketball Final Four team will appear, and numerous items will be auctioned for the benefit.

"People are going to be making a weekend trip out of it," Gregg said.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - With the West Virginia University-Marshall football game less than a week away, rooms at Morgantown hotels are booked. As is usually the case on football weekends, room rates are up and some hotels are requiring two-night minimum stays.

The scheduling of the game on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend apparently has not deterred fans from planning trips, said Peggy Myers-Smith, executive director of the Greater Morgantown Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"Hotels routinely sell out for any home game," she said.

Many have a two-day minimum stay requirement during home games, said B.J. Rochinich, assistant general manager at the Clarion Hotel Morgan downtown.

The historic hotel also has a two-day minimum stay and is sold out for both Saturday and Sunday, he said.

"We sell out almost a year in advance for home football games."

The hotel is on High Street near WVU's downtown campus, and Rochinich said rooms sell out almost as soon as the season's football schedule is released.

Like many others in the area, the Clarion Hotel Morgan increases its nightly rate when the Mountaineers play at home.

A regular weekend rate starts at $125, Rochinich said. On football weekends the rate goes to $208.99, Rochinich said.

The Waterfront Place Hotel also sells out its 205 rooms as soon as the fall football schedule is released, said Aly Goodwin Gregg, a spokeswoman.

"And we're sold out for every game except for the Norfolk State game," she said. "And I only have a handful of rooms available then."

The Mountaineers will square off against the Spartans of Norfolk State on Sept. 10.

Gregg said it was unusual for the Waterfront Place Hotel to have any rooms available during a WVU home game even if the Mountaineers are playing a smaller school from the Football Championship Subdivision.

Waterfront Place typically requires a two-day minimum for home games, Gregg said. However, since the Marshall game was moved from its normal Saturday to a Sunday, that requirement was lifted, she said.

Game weekend rates at the Waterfront average $259 per night, she said. Rates for other weekends start at $139 and go up to $189 for a King suite, according to the hotel's website.

The hotel has events scheduled for the weekend of the Mountaineers' opening game against the Thundering Herd. The Bob Huggins Fish Fry will be held Friday starting at 6 p.m.

The fish fry is a way to raise money for the Remember the Miners Scholarship and the Norma Mae Huggins Cancer Research Endowment, Gregg said. Members of the Mountaineers Men's Basketball Final Four team will appear, and numerous items will be auctioned for the benefit.

"People are going to be making a weekend trip out of it," Gregg said.

Lakeview Resort, which is about 15 minutes east of downtown Morgantown on Interstate 68, is sold out the Saturday before the game, said Kenny Serna, a front desk clerk. The resort has 238 rooms.

The resort, which sits next to Cheat Lake, does not have a minimum stay requirement on football weekends. But like most hotels in the Morgantown area, Lakeview Resort increases its rates.

Rates for a weekend home game start at $199, Serna said. Regular weekend rates start at $129.99, according to the resort's website.

Brenda Simpson is the director of sales for Residence Inn, which is right across the road from Milan Puskar Stadium.

As of Friday afternoon, Residence Inn had two rooms available because of cancellations. But Simpson did not expect them to last long. She already was offering the rooms to those on a waiting list.

Like most hotels in the city and surrounding areas, the Residence Inn typically sells out for every home game, she said.

"And we have several guests that pay to stay here for every home game in the season," she said.

The hotel has a two-night minimum stay and also raises its rates on football weekends, she said.

Normal weekend rates at the hotel are $159 per night, Simpson said. For home game weekends, that rate increases to $280 per night.

Some of the hotel representatives also sounded off on WVU's decision to move next year's game against James Madison University from Morgantown to FedEx Field in Landover, Md.

Gregg said it would undoubtedly take money from the local economy.

"Game day in Morgantown has a huge economic impact, and this is pulling money out of Morgantown," she said.

Serna said the same.

"No one is going to be in town," he said.

Myers-Smith said officials will have to look into ways to get people out and into the shops and restaurants when the Mountaineers play at FedEx Field.

"It presents a challenge for the community to identify something to do," she said. "People will have to say here is an open weekend in the city and now we need to find an activity to fill it."

Contact writer Paul Fallon at paul.fal...@dailymail.com^[1] or 304-348-4817.

References

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