Business owners praise PONY

Business owners praise PONY

Hotels, restaurants and other businesses across the Mahoning Valley are singing the praises of the PONY Fastpitch Softball National Championships that were played in Mahoning and Trumbull counties for two weeks.

“We were up 50 percent in our baseball categories during those two weeks,” said Rick Jenkins, store manager of Dick’s Sporting Goods in Niles, referring to the amount of business the store did compared with the same two weeks last year.

The tournament ended Saturday.

Jenkins said today the store was used as the registration location thanks to its affiliation with the tournament, and that helped draw additional customers and resulted in 20 of his employees working more hours than usual.

The tournament participants and their families came in for cleats, clothes, bats, gloves and a variety of other items, Jenkins said.

For the complete story, see Tuesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com.