Businesses score with Flyin to the Hoop

KETTERING, Ohio (WDTN) - You won't find a much hungrier team for this weekend's Flyin to the Hoop Invitational than those at one local restaurant.

"Ballin' and barbecuing, that's absolutely right," says OinkADoodleMoo Founder Mark Peebles.

OinkADoodleMoo may be the one spot where you don't want to see anybody dribble, but otherwise it's hoping to cash in on the basketball games going on just down the road at Trent Arena.

"Twenty thousand people and I guarantee at some point they've got to eat," Peebles says.

But much of the time they'll be feasting on basketball.

Flyin' to the Hoop was picked by one group as the second best high school basketball showcase in the country.

In its 11th year it'll feature 34 teams lacing it up to play 20 games in four days.

"If you build it they will come and it's become quite the extravaganza," says Flyin' to the Hoop founder Eric Horstman.

Now the event's economic star power rivals that of the teams who will be in it.

The event that's seen 25 of its participants go to the NBA, is generating $1.7 million for local businesses, according to the Dayton Montgomery County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"They're going to be buying gas, they're going to be staying in hotels and I think for this entire community there's an impact," Peebles says.

OinkADoodleMoo is hoping to score with fans by offering some deals for the weekend.

They want people to be as hooked on the barbeque as they are on the basketball.

"Once people get out here one time they tend to come back every year after," Horstman says.