You may have heard there’s a golf tournament of some note going on this week in Marana.

But those who live elsewhere in the world are just as likely to have heard or read about the Accenture Match Play Championship “in Tucson,” “near Tucson,” “in the high desert north of Tucson” or “in a suburb of Tucson.”

Poor little Marana, stuck with the heavy lifting of the event and none of the glory. Or some would have you think.

Just last week, the Explorer, a weekly newspaper that covers the northern “suburbs” of Tucson, explored the question of whether Tucson is being handed “a windfall of name recognition and tourism revenues at Marana’s expense.”

The answer – even ignoring that Tucson folks and organizations worked their butts off to bring the event here – is a resounding no.

“I think that’s a short-term view. This is really about a long-term strategy to provide the kind of exposure that only this kind of event could provide,” said Marana Town Manager Mike Reuwsaat. “The name recognition is one that we expect to build over time.”

It’s important early on that the event is marketed regionally from Tucson because people know the city, he said.

But just as Scottsdale and Glendale have used their ties with major sports events to forge unique identities from Phoenix, the golf tournament will help Marana eventually do the same, he said.

Marana officials believe the gorgeous desert images broadcast across the world will attract newcomers, and possibly industry, to the town and the entire region, which will feed the continued commercial development of Marana.

At least two shopping centers, two upscale resorts and a hospital are on the drawing board for Marana. A third major resort, the long talked about Ritz-Carlton, is quickly moving from dream to reality.

Even in the short term, said Mayor Ed Honea, Marana will benefit by filling the rooms at its 10 hotels and the tables at its local restaurants. No, Tiger Woods isn’t staying at the Red Roof Inn, but his fans or the international media might.

“I think that we’ll get our money’s worth and more,” Honea said.

The town’s costs to help stage the tournament haven’t been tallied yet, but they include staff planning time and police coverage. Marana is organizing event security, which includes reinforcements from the Tucson Police Department and the state Department of Public Safety.

The town also spent $220,000 for a parking lot for tournament attendees and another $200,000 (combined with $103,500 in corporate donations) to beautify the interchange at I-10 and Tangerine Road with new landscaping and paint, Reuwsaat said.

“When you think about the long-term benefits this town will reap, it’s not a very large investment at all,” he said.

The golf tournament is just the latest sign that Marana is coming of age.

While Tucson wasn’t looking, the sleepy little town grew to 30,000 residents.

Someday soon, even people such as myself, who rarely venture north of Ina Road unless heading toward San Diego, will have to stop referring to the residents of Marana as Maranians or Marananites.

They are Maranans and, this week in particular, darn proud to be so.

Anne T. Denogean can be reached at 573-4582 and adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767. For more Match Play coverage, click here.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Local. Tags for this post: Anne T. Denogean, Columnist, Local-Columnist, page-a03. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.