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What's Next For Downtown Sacramento After Packed March Madness Weekend?

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - An action-packed weekend from the streets to the basketball court, the first and second round of the NCAA tournament was a slam-dunk for the city.

"I think Sacramento does a pretty good job here and you know theoretically you have the economic impact which is pretty good," said Mike Horton of Sacramento.

Even Sauced BBQ and Spirits had record-breaking sales with the overflow of people.

With 50,000 to 100,000 people converging downtown over the weekend, plenty of people got a chance to see what the city has to offer, but with that many people, the big concern is where to stay?

"How do we get the All-Star game or how do get the Final-Four and the way we do that is we need more hotel space," said Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby.

Downtown hotels were sold out with NCAA fans and convention goers, which forced guests to branch out, but it also forced the city to get creative.

"I think we have made as many pitches as we can using Airbnb as part of our quantity calculation and I think some of those things will help us, but I think at the end of the day we need more hotels," Ashby said.

But the good news, experts say Sacramento got an A-Grade.

"When we look at these types of events often it's like building your resume and our resume is very strong after this weekend," said Mike Testa, Chief Operator Visit Sacramento.

With the nearly sold out arena Friday, and a sold out arena Sunday there were a lot of people shuffling around the city. Police say it was all in the planning which kept patron safe.

City leaders say they have around 50 bids right now for big acts and hopefully more hotels in the works.

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