All-Star week fosters big numbers
Milwaukee is hosting a coming-out party, and the whole world is invited.
Even those who are not Major League Baseball fans will enjoy the flurry of civic excitement created by this week’s 73rd All Star Game and the festivities giving the city and local business celebrity status.
The Greater Milwaukee Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates 100,000 attendees will take part in the upcoming week of events, which begin with the John Hancock All Star Fan Fest at the Midwest Express Center on July 5 and culminate with the All-Star Game at Miller Park on July 9.
The park will also be home to Radio Shack All-Star Sunday, which includes the All-Star Futures game and celebrity softball exhibition, and Monday’s Century 21 Home Run Derby.
"For the first time, the whole world is coming to our city," Vanessa Welter, director of public relations for the GMCVB, said of the highly publicized event. More than 100 million fans are expected to see or hear a broadcast of the game, which will be transmitted to 205 countries in 11 different languages.
Major League Baseball officials estimate the fan fare will create between $50 million to $60 million in revenue for the city and local business owners. Hundreds of Milwaukee-owned businesses, and thousands more in the region will benefit, including hotels, restaurants, transportation providers and shopping venues.
MLB All Star Game coordinator Lynn Sprangers has even higher expectations for the week’s events. She expects the number of All Star event attendees to reach 250,000.
"Major League Baseball has grabbed every hotel from the airport to Brookfield," Sprangers said. More than 3,000 hotel rooms alone will be rented by MLB officials, players, vendors and event personnel, she said.
With All-Star week beginning on the closing weekend of Summerfest and overlapping into the Greater Milwaukee Open’s Pro-Am event, hotel rooms are one of the most significant revenue sources.
Tim Smith, director of sales and marketing for the Hilton Milwaukee Center, said that while all of his 730 rooms are booked for July 5 through 9, such a large event is nothing new for the city’s hotel industry.
"Milwaukee has attracted visitors for a while," Smith said on the nationally publicity surrounding the event. "It just happens that this group is a sporting group, so it gets more media coverage."
Summerfest alone is expected to draw an estimated 1.7 million people to the city’s lakeshore. In addition, events like the Women’s International Bowling Congress has already generated an estimated $63 million into the city’s tills, while the Gen Con Game Fair in August is expected to boost the local economy by another $14 million.
Longtime fans know that the All-Star Game wasn’t always a major cash cow for the host city. The event has come a long way since 1933, when the All Star Game was just that – a one-day event restricted to sports fans.
Now the game has grown to significantly boost summer tourism industries across the country. In 1999, when Boston played host to the mid-summer fan fare, it became the first city to generate an estimated $60 million in revenue. The following years, both Atlanta and Seattle each raked in $50 million for themselves.
Milwaukee is braced for a much larger economic impact than what was seen when the city hosted the game in 1955 and 1975.
"I’ve said many times that I don’t think anybody here understands what’s going to happen in Milwaukee," Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said in an interview with Major League Baseball. "This is going to be very, very dramatic and make an enormous impact."
Baseball will add big business to the already increasing amount of tourism dollars generated in the area. Welter said the economic fallout seen in many industries following the Sept. 11 has had little impact on the Milwaukee’s tourism industry.
The GMCVB reported that approximately $2.3 billion in travel expenditures was attributed to the tourism industry in the Greater Milwaukee area in 2001. The figures show a 3.8% increase in tourism spending for 2001 compared to 2000.
"People don’t realize that we’re really good at this," Welter said on hosting national events. Summer traditions like the GMO and Hogfest bring in as many as 1 million visitors on a single weekend.
July 5, 2002 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
