Bryan Chappell, general manager of City Barbeque in Beavercreek, doesn’t need to check the events calendar for Wright State University’s Ervin J. Nutter Center.

When the crowds start pouring in to his restaurant at 2330 N. Fairfield Road, Chappell said he knows that there must be something happening at the nearby sports and entertainment venue.

“It has a positive impact on our business,” Chappell said.

The Fairborn university is emphasizing that impact these days, pointing in particular to a recent five-week period, from March 20 to April 30. In those 33 days, the Nutter Center — located on WSU’s campus just north of where Fairfield Road meets Colonel Glenn Highway — hosted 48 events. The events pulled in 73,000 people and produced $1.3 million in ticket sales, the university says in a report on its web site.

Those events included baseball card expos, concerts, youth basketball tournaments, wedding receptions and much more, said Jim Brown, the Nutter Center’s executive director.

“You name it,” Brown said.

None of which surprises Chappell. He said City Barbeque often finds itself catering to graduation parties, and his restaurant usually gets busy after one of the 14 graduation ceremonies hosted at the Nutter Center.

“Once they get out of there (the Nutter Center), we fill up pretty quickly,” he said.

The center is home of course to WSU Raiders men’s and women’s basketball games, as well as volleyball, Brown noted. But all kinds of events are center-stage there.

For 17 years, Jehovah’s Witnesses from Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky have gathered there for weekend district conventions. This year, according to the university, the convention drew some 30,000 people and generated $14.1 million for the local economy.

For two weekends each year, Winter Guard championships are held at the Nutter Center, drawing about 2,000 people. Those championships also find a place at arenas at the University of Dayton and Xavier University. In all, about 40,000 people come to see the championships, putting $15 million in the local economy, the university said.

“Obviously, we’re proud to be the home of Wright State Raiders basketball, men’s and women’s,” Brown said. “But our non-athletic business is what is surpassing everything.”

Brown pointed to the World Wrestling Entertainment “Monday Night Raw” event held at the Nutter Center in April, as well as the Cirque Du Soleil Michael Jackson show held in June.

Said Brown, “We brought Vegas to Dayton, so to speak.”

Tourism was a $40 billion industry for Ohio in 2011, supporting some 443,000 full-time equivalent jobs at hotels, restaurants, gas stations and elsewhere, said Tamara Brown, spokeswoman for Tourism Ohio. Relying on a consultant, Brown’s office calculates that there were 180 million tourism and travel “visits” in the state in 2011, which includes not just out-of-state visitors, but non-routine travel by residents in the state. A Cincinnati resident visiting the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, for example, will count as a “visit.”

For the past two years, travel to and within the state has grown, Brown said. “People love to travel for special events, whether it’s a sporting event or a concert.”

But Chris Pike, a senior economist with Wayne, Pa.-based consultant Tourism Economics, cautions that there is no simple multiplier or formula that can calculate the economic impact of travel or venues like the Nutter Center. An array of details and variables come into play, from the kind of event drawing visitors to the kinds of visitors being pulled in.

“The librarians’ association is going to spend differently than the obstetricians,” Pike said.

In general, travel from afar, from outside a venue’s region, will be more meaningful economically, Pike said. Those travelers may be more likely to stay at a hotel, dine at local restaurants and fill up their gas tanks before heading back home.

By comparison, locals attending a rock concert and then going home after the show are less impactful on a region’s economy.

The devil is in the details, Pike said.

“One number (formula) is going to hurt you because you’re not getting close to the specifics of an event,” he said.