The new Missoula Flood

Once upon a time the Lake Missoula Floods covered Cheney with water over 100 feet high.

Now, every other year, another flood from Missoula covers Cheney, this one with quite a bit of cash.

That's when the Montana Grizzlies make their biennial pilgrimage to play football at Roos Field, like they did last Saturday. It's big for the business community in Cheney and it's also huge for Eastern Washington University.

While the specifics of the impact of nearly 500 visitors from Griz-Land are hard to quantify, snapshots of Cheney businesses confirm there's quite a bit of money working its way through the community.

If one applies the traditional tourism industry standard multiplier of money spent by visitors to a community - approximately $100 per person, per day - when the Griz game comes to Cheney, it's worth about $500,000 to the area economy.

"Montana's definitely a big weekend," Curt Griffin, owner of the Cheney Zips Restaurant said. "We definitely see a ton of Montana fans in town."

But Griffin said that since 2010, when Eastern won its national championship, every home football game is big for his business. "These are the weeks we have on our calendar that we need to get ready for," Griffin said.

Next door to Zips is Gattos Pizza, another beneficiary of the Montana invasion.

"Friday nights are better when they are in town," Gattos' owner Tracy Gorum said. "They come into town early," she said of Montana fans. Missoula's rabid fan base is only about 200 miles away.

However, Gorum would like to see the return of Idaho to Big Sky football, something that would add another rivalry element that is even closer to Cheney.

Gattos partners with Cheney's Holiday Inn to help draw business. The city's newest hotel also benefits not only from the Griz game, but EWU football in general.

"Usually for Griz weekend, most of the time it's a little sooner, but this year we sold out almost two months in advance," Dori Byrd Cheney Holiday Inn general manager said. "In past years it's been a lot more Griz fans, this year it's probably 30 percent."

Like Zips, Byrd said Eastern football in general is good for her business.

"Our regulars, a lot of Eastern football parents, book all their rooms for the entire season, so they get the rooms first" Byrd said.

The two groups gather to eat breakfast together. The Eastern and Montana fans mix well, Byrd said.

"Griz fans definitely travel better than any other team in the Big Sky by far," Byrd said. She figured the 45 room night sales for Montana fans to be worth about $7,000-$8,000 based on an average rate.

Where the Montana-EWU game really makes a difference is on campus, specifically at Roos Field on game day.

One of the nearly 12,000 tickets for Saturday's game costs $45, so in general terms, Saturday's game brought in approximately $500,000 in ticket sales alone when one accounts for how some 3,500 season ticket holders figure in. That season ticket total is an all-time high, Associate Athletic Director – External Affairs Ken Halpin said.

Season tickets for Eastern football start at a high of $150 - $25 per game - for tickets that sell for up to $30 each for premium sections and of course include the Montana game at $45.

For this year's Montana visit, Eastern provided 475 tickets to fans, for player passes and administrative needs, "We do not allot this many for all visiting teams, only Montana and Montana State," Halpin said.

One thing that was missing from the Montana game was the Miller Lite Touchdown Club tent in the southeast corner of the field, but it was pure economics.

"The proforma (revenue) on the tent doesn't compete with the proforma on just putting in bleachers," Halpin said.

"We sell another roughly 700 tickets at $45 a piece (so) you immediately have a windfall of revenue you don't have to work for," he added.

Historically people in the bleachers have been Montana people, Halpin said. "You're going to see a lot more black and red in the bleachers and a lot less maroon." Single game ticket sales were offered to donors before Griz fans could buy them.

Some Montana fans go to greater lengths to get a game ticket in Cheney than do Eastern followers.

"There's a story a lot of folks tell - and it's true - every other year we sell some season tickets to the Missoula zip code because historically, the cost of a single game in Montana was the cost of a season ticket in Cheney," Halpin said.

Roughly 1,000 additional temporary bleacher seats are added to Roos for the Montana game and are rented from an area company.

The only additional measures Eastern employs for this game is an addition of some portable toilets. There is some additional law enforcement added for the game, as well as crowd management people from contractor, Staff Pro.

As for the lead up to the game, there are no additional staffing requirements, Karen Wichman, director of facility services said. "It's pretty much our normal crowd, normal staff coming in because every game we do the same set up."

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].