Audio St. Paul hopes big weekend = big bucks (story audio) Photos Some local sports vendors are in on the action Memorabilia-philia: Gunderson settles his $1,175 bill Ice palace also means cold cash for area businesses View full slideshow (5 images) Resources The NHL All-Star Game St. Paul Winter Carnival An online petition from fans trying to stop an NHL "lockout" Your Voice Join the conversation with other MPR listeners in the News Forum.

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St. Paul hopes big weekend = big bucks
by Jeff Horwich, Minnesota Public Radio
February 6, 2004

Two boys in tow, Andy Mcconnell of Woodbury makes a withdrawl from a USBank mobile ATM in the shadow of the ice palace and Xcel Energy Center. His next stop is the booth selling mini-donuts. (MPR Photo/Jeff Horwich)

The city of St. Paul is heading into what may be, arguably, its biggest weekend ever. The St. Paul Winter Carnival will wrap up two weeks with an expected 1.5 million total visitors. And officials with the National Hockey League now say more than 80,000 people will attend events related to Sunday's NHL All-Star Game, up from earlier estimates. All these people arrive with money in their pockets -- though St. Paul's love affair with hockey may face trouble in the future.

St. Paul, Minn. — For the Twin Cities as a whole, it's hard to top 1991 and '92. In the space of less than one year, Minneapolis hosted the Stanley Cup, the World Series, the Super Bowl and the Final Four. The men's golf U.S. Open was in Chaska.

But St. Paul has never hosted a national pro sports event, and officials are basking in the attention and the money.

	Memorabilia-philia: Gunderson settles his $1,175 bill

The NHL estimates a boost to the local economy of up to $18 million. The league doesn't say how it calculates that figure, but somewhere in there you'll find Scott Gunderson. He's a fan from Washington D.C., one of 5,000 out-of-towners here for the game.

The trip "will probably cost me about $7,000," Gunderson says. "I think the hotel is $1,200 for five days, $300 for the plane ticket, and the rest will just be spent here -- food, beer and merchandise."

Not all his money will be lavished on downtown St. Paul. Gunderson and two friends flew on Northwest Airlines, based in nearby Eagan. Their hotel is in Minneapolis, though St. Paul officials can hardly complain when most of their hotels are booked up. Gunderson just paid cab fare from the city across the river to arrive at the NHL gift shop -- where he spent nearly $1,200 on jerseys and other souvenirs.

That gift shop money is likely to leave town when the game does. But it shows that, like Gunderson, the people who travel to all star games are not pinching pennies. Many are in the entourage of NHL teams -- either owners or corporate sponsors, according to league events manager Greta Palmer.

	Some local sports vendors are in on the action

"They're all on expense accounts," Palmer says. "It's sort of our big party of the year, so people come in a celebratory mood. They go out to dinner and they go out to breakfast."

Far more people, perhaps 80,000, will come just to watch the players practice and attend a sort of NHL carnival called the All-Star FANtasy. They won't spend as much, but they'll still want food and something to remember their visit.

The same goes for the hundreds of thousands who tour the ice palace across the street. Most of this money comes from other parts of the metro and the state.

"Probably each of us, by the time we buy a couple souvenirs and gas and meals, it will be about a hundred dollars apiece," says Frank Siiro, who drove down with a group of four from Duluth to see the ice palace.

So without the ice palace, they wouldn't be here spending money in St. Paul?

	Ice palace also means cold cash for area businesses

"No way," says Siiro.

"It's cold enough up in Duluth," adds friend Larry Puhl. "We don't have to come down here and get cold!"

In fact, St. Paul officials do fret a little that their big national moment is so closely tied to images of cold and ice. But in the end, Julie Larson with the St. Paul Convention and Visitors Bureau says winter publicity beats no publicity, and cold cash is the same as any other kind.

"It really helps us," Larson says. "When we go out and we're selling the city, people can say, 'Oh, yeah, that's where St. Paul is -- you had the ice palace, and you had the NHL All-Star Game.'" Larson says the American Society of Association Executives comes to the Twin Cities this summer -- essentially a convention of convention-holders. She says it will be extremely valuable that St. Paul had recently been in the spotlight.

	Martha Fuller

The money and attention do come at a price. The ice palace will cost some $8.4 million of donated time and money, which some critics say might have been better spent just down the street at a center for the homeless. Some locals don't enjoy the traffic congestion. The NHL takes over the Xcel Energy Center and the RiverCentre for free, and the RiverCentre is foregoing at least $100,000 from a home and garden show that had to reschedule. Larson says St. Paul put up another $100,000 to cover the city with green and red all-star banners.

The sea of team colors in St. Paul is a reminder of one cloud over the festivities. As good as Minnesota Wild hockey may be to St. Paul right now, a league-wide dispute over player salary could take it all away next season.

Martha Fuller is St. Paul's director of planning and economic development.

"The Wild has been tremendously valuable for St. Paul in terms of bringing folks in. To the extent that there's a possibility of a lockout, yes obviously it's a concern," Fuller says. "But I trust that the league and the owners and everyone's doing everything they can to try to minimize the risk of that happening."

Fuller points out that the city is insulated in numerous ways from any financial liability stemming from under-use of the Xcel Energy Center, though receipts at some local businesses would undoubtedly suffer.

Owners and players face a September deadline. For now, fans and local officials are trying to focus on the positive. This weekend, they've got plenty to distract them.

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