NORTH MANKATO — In the championship game of the Peppers Classic, Mankato’s Peppers National team was down 0-2 early against the Minnesota Elite. A rally by the Peppers caused the tides to turn in the game, leading the local team to win 6-2.
The win was a victory for the team itself — and for Greater Mankato in general.
With 85 teams from all around Minnesota, Nebraska, and even as far as Manitoba, competing in the softball tournament at Caswell Park over the Fourth of July weekend, there was a lot of softball going on and a lot of money being spent by participants, their families and the fans.
The tournament consists of four different age groups that can compete for 1st place: 12U, 14U, 16U and 18U. With the number of teams that play, competition is tough.
That is why team members of the Peppers National, a local team created to compete at a high level in the 18U division, were so excited when they took first place on home territory.
“We’ve been going to this tournament for a while, and the team I’ve been on has never won,” pitcher Mariah Anderson said. “It feels pretty good to win.”
Anderson, who goes to United South Central in Wells, has been playing in the tournament for the past five years, although she had yet to get close to first place until this year. She said this year’s games, like every other year, were close and down to the wire.
“They were really good teams, like our last two games were really close and intense,” she said.
The championship game pitted the Minnesota Elite and the Peppers National up against each other to win it all. Anderson talked about how the crowd’s energy helped fuel the team’s victory.
“It just gets you more excited and have more energy, just knowing you have people cheering you on,” Anderson said.
Those large crowds are to be expected each year around this time, and they bring more than just energy at championship softball games. For the region, tournaments like the Peppers Classic can bring a big economic boost.
John Considine, a parent who helped form the Peppers National and is a former vice president of the Peppers, estimates the Peppers Classic alone generates over $1 million from the Greater Mankato area through hotels, food and shopping.
“You add all that up and there’s easily a million dollars of direct spend into the community, and that has ripple effects throughout the community,” Considine said.
He estimates that each household spends around $850 during their stay for the tournament.
With nearly 100 teams, each with 12 players that bring family, spending money on lodging, food, and downtime activities, the numbers check out.
Buffalo Wild Wings, like many other restaurants in the Mankato area, saw an increase in visitors over the holiday weekend. Jen McCabe, brand manager at the restaurant, said the Peppers Classic always brings big numbers for their location.
“We had about 10 teams come in over the weekend,” McCabe said. “I mean, this is groups of 25 to 30 people at a time.”
The Mankato Buffalo Wild Wings is a sponsor of the Peppers, their jersey hanging on one of the walls within the building. McCabe said Buffalo Wild Wings sees big groups of teams from places like Caswell because of the restaurant’s emphasis on local sports.
“Our brand of sports, that’s who we are. So having a place for these softball teams to not just come and compete in the tournaments, but then also go someplace and have an experience with their teams.”
This year’s Peppers Classic had a few teams missing, bringing profit down a fraction compared to other years. But even with only 85 teams compared to 95 to 100 in other years, the weekend still hit that $1 million mark, with $20,000 coming from registration for the tournament alone.
It’s also important to note that many games during the tournament took place on fields other than at Caswell. Games were played in surrounding cities such as St. Peter as well.
“We had to use every flat surface possible,” Considine said.
Every corner of the Greater Mankato area was used for the Peppers Classic, and because thousands of people are visiting the city for the weekend, hotels around the area were booked. Many teams reserve their stay for next year’s tournament right after the current one ends.
Joy Leafblad, program director at Visit Mankato, helped with the coordination of lodging for visiting teams. She said hotels were being used all the way up near the Twin Cities.
“New Ulm gets full, St. Peter gets full, Owatonna gets full,” Leafblad said. “We had a team that I talked to from northern Minnesota, and they ended up looking at Shakopee.”
Hotels and bed-and-breakfasts are another large contributor to the economic stimulus the Peppers Classic brings to the area.
Leafblad said every hotel was booked during the weekend, a majority of rooms filled with teams.
And with an average night at a hotel in Mankato hovering around $100 a room, much of that economic impact comes simply from rooms to sleep in.
“Those types of events not only help the economy here in Mankato and North Mankato, but also the surrounding areas as well,” Leafblad said. “It really is a big push for the entire Greater Mankato region.”
With so many teams coming in from other states and from other parts of Minnesota, need for lodging is high, and hotels in Greater Mankato expect the company.
Across the street from Caswell Park is the North Mankato Comfort Inn and Suites. General Manager David Kamm said that its location makes it a hotspot for teams looking for lodging.
“We’re sold out anytime there’s something at Caswell,” Kamm said. “We’re sold out the next four weekends because of stuff across the street.”
The Peppers Classic is a weekend hotels expect larger numbers than usual; however it is not the only event at Caswell that brings hordes of traveling teams to Mankato. Caswell typically hosts a softball tournament nearly every weekend in the summer.
“We only have two weekends where we actually don’t have tournaments, and those are in late August,” said Brad Walsh, parks and recreation coordinator of North Mankato.
“I mean, we’re talking 5,000 to 6,000 people every single Saturday for seven straight Saturdays.”
With big tournaments every weekend, Caswell generated over $8 million for the Mankato area over the course of the 2024 and brought in about 33,000 visitors, Walsh said.
“I have to always give every business in upper North a heads-up ahead of time because it completely changes their staffing,” he said.
“If I don’t let those businesses know, they’re usually calling me, ‘Hey, we got to know when these are going on,’ because clearly it really impacts their numbers. The tournaments are super important.”