By John Huxman
Freelance Reporter
Special to the Tribune
Logan Mize concert first on this list of promotions
In mid-September, the City of Pratt hired Tiffany Riley to fill the newly created role of Tourism Ambassador for Pratt. One of her first tasks is promotion of the city-sponsored Logan Mize acoustic concert, coming November 2 to the Green Sports Complex. Tickets are now available through the city’s website at www.Cityofprattks.com or Mize’s site www.tickets.loganmize.com.
Riley’s position as tourism ambassador is part of the city’s strategy to grow the economy and population of the city. During the recent tax hearings, the commission pointed out that they are in something of a catch 22 regarding industry; industries do not want to relocate to Pratt because there is not enough workforce, and workers do not want to move to Pratt because there is not enough industry. As Mayor Deeds explained then, the way out of this bind and toward growth may be tourism. Pratt’s hotels are some of the best in Kansas for a city its size and a great deal of tourist infrastructure, such as the Green Sports Complex, four different museums, the soccer complex, the municipal building, Jack Ewing Park, Merchants Park, and numerous other parks, many with athletic fields, are already in place.
“Pratt has top tier places- it’s time to use those,” Riley said. “I grew up in the Pratt area and then moved away after college, living in many places where I volunteered as much as I could doing event planning and marketing while I raised my kids. The last seven years I have worked as co-manager at N’Cahoots Coffee & Shoppe here in Pratt,” Riley said. “My mother and I partnered in starting the coffee shoppe and always made it a priority to promote Pratt in any way we could. When the position of Tourism Ambassador was posted, I knew it was the opportunity I had been waiting for to step up and be an even bigger part of the Pratt community working for the City of Pratt to help bring tourism and more into our community.”
In addition to the Mize concert, Riley said that she also has several other events or projects in the works that she is not ready to announce yet.
“Its been a group effort of working together with the rec. department and our city manager to try and make Pratt the best that it can be and bring some exciting new stuff. I’m excited about it. I think we’re going to do some great things. We’re just getting started,” she said.
Although she has only been on the city’s staff for a month, Riley has already planned her first project; a concert at the Green Sports Complex by country singer Logan Mize, the Ballpark Lights: Small Town Nights.
“I’ve hit the ground running and have thrown together a whole concert,” she said. “Usually, a concert takes more than a month to plan.”
The concert will be Saturday, November 2, at Green’s baseball facility (2007 E. 6th Street, Pratt), which can accommodate 700 spectators, plus more on the field.
“Ballpark Lights: Small Town Nights was conceived because we wanted to utilize Green Sports Complex during this off season,” she said. “It is such great facility and perfect for a concert.”
Mize is a big name to be able to host in Pratt.
“The Logan Mize concert was born out of wanting to provide a bigger event than we have had in Pratt for a while, a native Kansas country artist with enough name recommendation to bring in people from surrounding communities for a fun night,” Riley said.
The city has even passed an ordinance to allow the sale of beer at the Green Sports Complex during the event, as was discussed at a recent city meeting. Riley said that all of the VIP tickets to Mize’s concert have already sold out and that ticket sales are strong for regular tickets. Those who wish to attend should check out the above links for purchase as soon as possible.
