Oregon State isn’t the only place in Corvallis feeling the financial pinch without Beaver football this fall.

Local hotels, restaurants and others view those six to seven Beaver football weekends as some of the year’s moneymakers.

Without it, they won’t wither and fail, but there’s impact.

According to Visit Corvallis, the city’s 981 hotel rooms have an occupancy rate of 73% to 95% and average $150 to $275 per room during an Oregon State football weekend.

As a comparison, the occupancy rates during a nonfootball weekend in October range between 40% to 60%, at a much lower average price point.

It’s another blow to Corvallis lodging and restaurant business because of the coronavirus outbreak. Visit Corvallis Executive Director Christina Rehklau said Corvallis’ hotels suffered a $5 million loss in revenue from April to June because of the pandemic.

“Without football, it will be a tremendous loss of revenue,” Rehklau said. “Those are some of our strongest weekends of the year. The day after football games, you see a lot of people out for brunch, especially the restaurants close to campus.”

Restaurants, particularly those bordering campus and in downtown Corvallis, are busy for most of their hours of operation from Friday night to Sunday afternoon during a football weekend. Cloud Davidson, who owns The Downward Dog Campus and previous owner of other Corvallis restaurants, said surges from football weekends “help make ends meet.”

This fall?

“It’s pretty simple. It’ll be a slower fall, for sure,” Davidson said.

“Less events means less people and of course that means less revenue.”

It’s been a bittersweet year for Benton County Fairgrounds. The pandemic shutdown this year’s county fair, but RV parking this summer is booming.

Fairgrounds manager Lynne McKee said they’re seeing an uptick in RV parking, as an increasing number of travelers look to sleep and eat in an RV rather than a hotel.

It’s helping offset the loss of a big moneymakers, Beaver football weekends.

About 70 to 80 RVs park on fairgrounds property for football games.

This year’s seven-game home stand was expected to generate in excess of $50,000 in parking fees.