LAKELAND, Fla. - After decades of being held in the city of Lakeland , the Boys and Girls State Basketball Championships will now be hosted in Jacksonville.

Local perspective:

Abby Starkey and her husband started the Chop Shop in 2006 and have been in downtown Lakeland for nearly two decades.

"It has been great! We started with not that many businesses downtown, and now it's just thriving," she said. "It's a great community."

The RP Funding Center hosts all kinds of big events and has been a huge driving factor for Starkey's business. Now, one of the biggest events that draws tens of thousands of visitors to the area, the Boys and Girls State Basketball Championships, will be moving to Jacksonville.

Starkey said it's an unfortunate change.

"Brick-and-mortar businesses are still

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