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Boston's Morning Newsletter
March Madness expected to pump nearly $18 million into Boston economy
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
Get ready to see a lot of UConn fans — and one mildly superstitious coach — walking around the city.
A slam dunk: For the first time since 2018, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament is descending on Boston. TD Garden will host three games — the East region’s Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight rounds — later this week. That means thousands of March Madness fans and students are booking flights and hotels to Boston, a welcome sight for the hospitality industry during a typically quiet time of year.
- Who’s coming to Boston? The big local draw is UConn, the tournament’s defending champion and top overall seed. The Huskies dominated in their first two games and will play No. 5 San Diego State on Thursday at 7:39 p.m. That will be followed by another game the same night between No. 2 seed Iowa State and No. 3 seed Illinois, tipping off after 10 p.m. (Hopefully, the Garden stocks up on Dunkin’.) The winners of those two games will face off Saturday to determine who goes to the Final Four.
- Can I get tickets? Yes, but it will cost you a small fortune. Tickets for nosebleed seats — think the last two rows of the balcony — for a single game Thursday start at over $400.
- So, what do we get out of it? Meet Boston, the region’s tourism bureau, estimates the tournament will pump $17.6 million into the local economy (around half of the impact of the big Army-Navy game in Foxborough last fall). UConn’s proximity and the number of alums in New England help that number, according to Meet Boston CEO Martha Sheridan. “The fact that it’s driving distance — but still over 50 miles — is appealing because people won’t have to book flights, but they will want to spend the night in the city, presumably,” Sheridan told WBUR’s Paul Connearney, adding hotel availability shouldn’t be a problem in March for anyone booking last-minute trips.
- Zoom out: What’s the Boston tourism scene look like in general these days? Sheridan told Radio Boston the number of vacationers visiting Boston is back to pre-pandemic levels, though remote work has still left a dent in business travel. Listen to the full segment here.
On the picket line: Graduate student workers at Boston University are going on strike this morning in an effort to get higher wages and better benefits. The group includes about 3,000 unionized student workers, like teaching assistants and fellows. They plan to picket on Marsh Plaza every weekday until the strike ends.
- The two sides seem pretty far apart in negotiations. Grad student workers currently get stipends from $27,000 to $40,000 for 20 hours of work a week. The union is demanding an increase up to $62,440. BU officials say they have offered to increase PhD student workers’ wages to $42,159 and raise the minimum wage for students paid hourly from $15 to $18.
Pryde parade: Massachusetts Democrats say they have restored funding for a Boston housing project tailored toward LGBTQ+ seniors, after the money was cut last July by congressional Republicans. Rep. Ayanna Pressley announced this morning that she and Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey secured $850,000 in the latest government funding bill for The Pryde project in Hyde Park
- Why it matters: The Pryde’s developers had pledged to push forward with or without the money. “What this funding now does is allow us to have the rich, resourced programming and services that will make The Pryde a home for the folks who are living in isolation, facing harassment where they may be, and now are able to have a community that supports them,” LGBTQ+ Senior Housing executive director Gretchen Van Ness told WBUR.
Out of office: Gov. Maura Healey now says she’ll disclose the location of her personal out-of-state trips — but only after the fact — as she tries to balance past pledges about greater transparency with personal privacy and security. The shift comes after Healey’s office refused to give reporters details about a four-day trip last month, which led to a bit of a media headache for the governor.
- So, where’d she go last month? Puerto Rico. According to her office, Healey’s partner, Joanna Lydgate, took her to the island for a long weekend to celebrate the governor’s birthday.
P.S.— If you need a laugh, the 24th annual Boston Comedy Festival returns to City Winery this week, featuring well-known standup comics ranging from Lenny Clarke to Kevin Nealon to DL Hughley.
