Last week marked a quiet milestone for us: 52 straight weeks of delivering Toledo Money to inboxes across Northwest Ohio.

That’s 52 editions sent to the people building careers, companies and wealth in this region. The audience exists because you exist. Entrepreneurs starting things. Operators scaling them. Professionals figuring out their own definition of success right here in NW Ohio.

Our job is simple. We feel if we Keep showing up and keep covering the people, capital and ideas shaping the local economy, that along the way we can shift the narrative around Northwest Ohio’s business and financial scene.

Either way, we’re glad you’re here. Whether this is your 53rd week or your first.

Welcome to the madness. Think of reading this newsletter like standing on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the early 1990s… except the floor has been uprooted and moved to Toledo.

This week’s shoutout goes to Dr. Tom Baur, DC, owner of New Life Spine Center in Maumee. Dr. Baur is a newer member of the Toledo Money audience and, in his words, he’s “loving what he is reading.” Always good to hear.

But here’s the better part. Word around town is that Dr. Baur is one of the best chiropractors in the area. A business owner who clearly takes pride in his work and the patients he serves every day.

Appreciate you being part of the Toledo Money community, Tom. And more importantly, part of the group helping make Northwest Ohio a great place to live and work.

Owens Corning | $OC ( ▲ 3.31% )

Dana Incorporated | $DAN ( ▼ 1.6% )

The Andersons | $ANDE ( ▼ 0.7% )

Owens Illinois | $OI ( ▼ 3.28% )

Welltower Inc. | $WELL ( ▲ 0.79% )

Marathon Petroleum Corporation | $MPC ( ▼ 1.69% )

First Solar | $FSLR ( ▼ 0.75% )

Earlier this week I was in Charlotte for work just as the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament tipped off.

You didn’t need a ticket to know something big was happening.

Roughly 40% of the people walking around Uptown were wearing their school colors. Duke blue. UNC powder blue. NC State red. Hotels were buzzing, restaurants were full, and the airport looked like a traveling fan convention.

The most telling signal was the hotel market.

Rooms across Uptown were pushing $700+ per night — not unheard of for Charlotte, but clearly driven by the surge of fans, alumni, media, and corporate sponsors flooding the city for the week.

Now to be clear: Toledo isn’t Charlotte.

But it does raise an interesting regional question.

Why isn’t the Mid-American Conference Men's Basketball Tournament hosted in Toledo?

Because geographically speaking, Toledo sits almost exactly where a conference tournament should.

Conference tournaments function as mini economic conventions.

A typical multi-day college basketball tournament can generate $8M–$20M in visitor spending depending on attendance and hotel demand. That spending flows into:

Even mid-major tournaments often bring 10,000–20,000 visitors over several days when factoring in fans, teams, media, and sponsors.

Cities chase these events for a reason.

They are reliable outside-dollar generators.

The current MAC tournament host arena in Cleveland is Rocket Arena, home of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Capacity for basketball:
~19,400 seats

Toledo’s Huntington Center holds:

~8,000–8,300 seats for basketball

That difference matters, but it doesn’t eliminate Toledo.

Many mid-major tournaments across the country operate successfully in arenas between 7,000 and 10,000 seats, which often create better atmospheres and higher sell-through rates.

The Huntington Center was designed specifically for multi-day sporting events, concerts, and conventions.

Infrastructure-wise, Toledo already checks the box.

The Mid-American Conference footprint is heavily concentrated in Ohio and Michigan.

Here’s roughly how travel distances stack up if Toledo hosted:

Toledo sits within a 3–4 hour drive of nearly every MAC campus.

That’s almost exactly what conferences look for when selecting neutral tournament sites.

Another reason cities chase these events is walkability economics.

Downtown Toledo already has the ingredients:

Conference tournaments work best when fans can park once and spend all day downtown.

Toledo’s arena district is built for exactly that.

This isn’t about Toledo competing with Charlotte.

Charlotte is hosting one of the most powerful conferences in college basketball.

But it does highlight something worth asking:

If Toledo sits geographically in the middle of the MAC, already has the arena, and could benefit from the visitor spending…

Why isn’t the city at least in the regular hosting rotation?

Because in the business of sports tournaments, the cities that benefit are usually the ones that raise their hand first.

Toledo spends a lot of time talking about attracting outside dollars into the region. One of the simplest ways to do that is by hosting events that force people to visit.

The Mid-American Conference Men's Basketball Tournament won’t transform the regional economy overnight. But for a week each March it could bring thousands of fans, alumni, and media members into downtown Toledo; filling hotel rooms, restaurants, and bars while putting the city on television screens across the Midwest.

The infrastructure already exists with the Huntington Center. The geography makes sense. The question isn’t whether Toledo could host.

It’s whether the city and regional leadership want to compete for it. 🏀

Toledo Money is proud to recognize outstanding business leaders across various sectors.

Each week thousands of Northwest Ohio executives read Toledo Money.
Many of them are building the companies, institutions, and investments shaping the region.

We’ll continue highlighting the people behind that work.

Here are a few headlines we are snacking on

Money is usually discussed in whispers, especially in the Midwest. Salaries, investments, mistakes, and the real math of building a life tend to stay behind closed doors.

The Money Confessional exists to open that door a little. Not to compare or judge, but to give readers a clearer look at how professionals in our region actually earn, spend, invest, and occasionally screw up along the way.

Every story carries a lesson. Sometimes it’s a smart decision worth copying. Sometimes it’s a mistake that others can avoid. Either way, the goal is simple: make the conversation around money a little more honest.

Interested in sharing your story for the benefit of others, check this out.

Age: Mid-30s
Industry / Role: Marketing leader at a regional company (Senior Manager level)
Household Income: ~$135,000
Location: Downtown Toledo
Family Situation: Single, early career transplant

Rent: $1,450/month (downtown apartment)
Car Payment: $0/month
Investments: ~$3,000/month across 401k, Roth IRA, and brokerage
Largest Monthly Expense: Rent and savings contributions
Guilty Pleasure Spend: Travel back to Indianapolis and the occasional long weekend in Chicago

The move to Toledo came through a marketing role that offered more responsibility than anything available at the time in Indianapolis. In a smaller market, the pace of exposure is real. Projects move faster, leadership teams are smaller, and it’s easier to build a reputation across an organization.

But that same structure creates a different challenge a few years in.

The ladder gets short quickly. In many companies across the region, there are only one or two Director-level marketing roles. Once you approach that level, the next promotion often depends less on performance and more on timing; specifically, whether someone above you decides to retire.

Being a transplant forced discipline early.

Without family ties in the region and with career mobility always in the back of my mind, the strategy has been simple: save aggressively and stay flexible. The lower cost of living compared to Indianapolis makes that possible.

Instead of upgrading apartments or buying a house immediately, most of that margin goes straight into investments.

Becoming an “ultra saver” early.

The Toledo cost structure makes it possible to invest aggressively without sacrificing lifestyle. A large portion of income goes into retirement and brokerage accounts, creating optionality if relocation becomes necessary.

Hesitating to buy property.

Financially, buying a home in Toledo would likely make sense. But career uncertainty makes that decision difficult. It’s hard to commit to planting roots when the long-term professional path in the region isn’t entirely clear.

Many conversations about economic growth focus on attracting early-career talent.

But the bigger challenge shows up five to ten years later.

Ambitious professionals in their 30s often hit a structural ceiling. The region simply has fewer senior roles in fields like marketing, strategy, and product leadership. Without enough mid-to-senior level positions, the career ladder narrows quickly.

For many in this peer group, the choice quietly becomes: wait for someone to retire, or move to a larger market.

Toledo can be a phenomenal early career market. The cost of living allows you to build savings quickly, and the professional community is small enough that strong work gets noticed.

Just go in with a plan.

Build your financial base early, keep your skills portable, and recognize that Toledo might be either a long-term home; or a very productive chapter along the way.

Confusing, jargon-packed, and time-consuming. Or quick, direct, and actually enjoyable.

Easy choice.

There’s a reason over 4 million professionals read Morning Brew instead of traditional business media. The facts hit harder, it’s built to be skimmed, and for once, business news is something you actually look forward to reading.

Try Morning Brew’s newsletter for free and realize just how good business news can be.

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