With the MGM Springfield due to open next fall, one of the small towns near the Bay State’s third largest city is exploring ways to take advantage of the influx of visitors by marketing itself to attract visitors to the casino.
An advisory committee to Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz has begun meeting to prepare an action plan. Its first job will be to cast a “wide net” to find a marketing firm to help create an advertising campaign to attract visitors. The city successfully applied for $100,000 in mitigation funding from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to fund the campaign.
The committee includes representatives from the local Chamber of Commerce, the area’s university, UMass Amherst, a representative from the arts community and several marketing specialists.
The mayor called the group “a strong group of professionals with a lot of experience, some of whom have done this kind of work in marketing and branding. I think they’ll really be able to help evaluate and make a good recommendation.”
He added, “The casino is expected to open in August or September, so we really want to do our work in the first half of 2018.” The committee’s goal, he said, “is to ensure that new visitors to the region who may be coming to the MGM Springfield facility know about Northampton and know about our offerings here.”
The mayor has repeatedly warned of his fears that the casino would divert commerce and consumer spending away from his city. In the application to the MGC, it said, “Many local businesses in Northampton operate on narrow margins so any potential incremental decline in patronage could have a serious impact.”
