DAYTON — The WGI Sports of the Arts World Championship kicks off the 2024 competition today across the Miami Valley.
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As News Center 7 previously reported, the competition will take place across the Dayton-area and competitors will face off in three categories: Color Guard, Percussion, and Winds.
As many as 60,000 people are expected to be coming to the Miami Valley for the event over the next week and a half. They will cheer on competitors from as far as Japan.
Events like this also help bring a big boom for our local economy.
Last year’s economic impact was approximately $18 million.
“This event brings so much business into our community. These people are staying in our hotels, they’re dining in our restaurants. They’re spending money at our retail outlets, are purchasing gasoline. Some of them are flying in, some are coming via motorcoach, but you will definitely see a number of people in the greater Dayton area this week,” Jacqueline Powell, the president and CEO of the Dayton Convention and Visitors Bureau, told News Center 7 on Wednesday.
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The competition will be at several locations in Dayton. This includes the UD Arena, Dayton Convention Center, and Nutter Center.
There will be events at the Cintas Center at Xavier University and Truist Arena at Northern Kentucky University.
Several local schools will also compete. Among those are the Miamisburg High School Color Guard and Bellbrook High School Colorguard.
Miamisburg is scheduled to perform in preliminaries this afternoon at UD Arena at 2:20 p.m. while Bellbrook goes on at 4 p.m.
The competition is two weekends long and will last until April 21. People will likely notice more traffic in the area until then.
For more on the WGI, visit this website.
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