Morgantown-area hotels booked for Coal Bowl - Daily Mail - Charleston
MCT REGIONAL NEWS
By Paul Fallon
Charleston Daily Mail, W.Va.
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
Aug. 29--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 Southern 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.
29 Aug, 2011--
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