{"id":2709,"date":"2012-02-19T19:19:45","date_gmt":"2012-02-20T00:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/?p=2709"},"modified":"2012-02-19T19:22:08","modified_gmt":"2012-02-20T00:22:08","slug":"local-businesses-score-with-hockey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/?p=2709","title":{"rendered":"Local businesses score with hockey"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world\u2019s best hockey players have left town and the new Convention Centre is no longer packed with legends of the game and endless amounts of memorabilia. Regardless, it seems Ottawa will have fond memories of NHL All-Star weekend for quite some time.
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\n Millions of people in 150 countries were exposed not only to Ottawa\u2019s love for hockey, but to the city as a whole, through various North American and international media.<\/p>\n

It was a win for both the Ottawa Senators and their fan base. But local businesses may have the biggest smile of all now that the dust has cleared, according to Mayor Jim Watson.<\/p>\n

On his blog, Watson backed up various media reports by indicating that the city brought in approximately $30 million in revenue as a result of hosting the NHL\u2019s mid-season showcase.<\/p>\n

For Howard Bloom of Sports Business News, the financial gain isn\u2019t the only positive to come out of the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere events like this benefit is from the hundreds of reporters who come out and report on how great the city is,\u201d Bloom says. \u201cThe real benefit is in selling the city to people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The media drops in en masse<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Watson noted that more than 400 journalists helped to accomplish that by covering the events of the weekend.<\/p>\n

One of those journalists was Greg Wyshynski, the creator and editor of the Puck Daddy Blog on Yahoo! Sports. He says the people of Ottawa were the big winners.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this was a great endorsement for hockey fans in the city. They really created an incredible atmosphere throughout the entire weekend,\u201d Wyshynski said. \u201cIt was great to see their treatment of [Ottawa Senators captain] Daniel Alfredsson and the other players, and their rivalry with the [Toronto Maple Leafs] really came through as well, which made things all the more exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to those local residents, hockey fans from all over made the trip to Ottawa to take in the festivities.
\n Maple Leafs fan Daniel Fry says he was skeptical about Ottawa\u2019s ability to host the event after attending Senators games while he was a student at Algonquin College.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been to a couple of games when the [Leafs] came to town, and Leaf fans would take over the arena,\u201d says Fry, who moved back home to Kincardine, Ont., last year. \u201cThat wasn\u2019t the case at all this time around. Ottawa fans really impressed me.\u201d<\/p>\n

City-wide reaction<\/span><\/p>\n

For Carleton University student Grace Protopapas, the atmosphere in the city topped all other sporting events she has seen. Meeting NHL stars Joffrey Lupul and Tyler Seguin certainly didn\u2019t hurt her excitement level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire city was alive the whole weekend, it was great to see,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen you walked downtown there were people everywhere in hockey jerseys, so it was quite the sight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave McGuire, manager of the Heart and Crown in the Byward Market, saw many fans like Fry and Protopapas over the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very busy from Wednesday right up until Sunday, so we did really well,\u201d McGuire says. \u201cThere was definitely a boost in sales because of the fact that it was a hockey event.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good news doesn\u2019t end there for the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

Mayor Jim Watson announced on Twitter after Sunday\u2019s game that Ottawa may be in line for another hockey spectacle.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust chatted with NHL’s Gary Bettman and said it\u2019s time for Ottawa to get the outdoor classic! He said when you get a new stadium – its coming,\u201d Watson wrote on the social media website.<\/p>\n

Over the years, the city has set a strong precedent for hosting events based around Canada\u2019s favourite game.<\/p>\n

In 2009, Ottawa welcomed the best teenage players in the world for the annual IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship. According to the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance, the tournament attracted over 32,000 visitors to the city during its 11-day stretch. Those visitors \u2013 many of whom came from south of the border \u2013 spent in excess of $14.1 million during their stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cOttawa is one of the strongest hockey markets around, both on and off the ice,\u201d Bloom says.<\/p>\n

Women’s world championship next<\/span><\/p>\n

If Ottawans are still craving hockey, they will get their fix shortly. The city will host the IIHF World Women’s Hockey Championships in April 2013. In order to beat out competition from Kamloops, B.C., and St. John\u2019s, N.L., the city needed to promise a minimum profit of $500,000.<\/p>\n

Winnipeg was the last Canadian city to play host to the event in 2007. That tournament made a record profit of $751,706.<\/p>\n

But hockey isn\u2019t the only game in town.<\/p>\n

What if the city swaps the ice with grass, and replaces the hockey pucks in favour of soccer balls? Local businesses may soon find out, as Ottawa is likely to be one of six host cities when the Women\u2019s World Cup descends upon Canada in 2015.<\/p>\n

But Protopapas, a former member of the Carleton Ravens women\u2019s soccer team, isn\u2019t convinced the city will support the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there will be nearly as much hype surrounding that event because we are such a hockey nation,\u201d she says. \u201cThey\u2019ll get the die-hard soccer fans, but I don\u2019t know how far the support will go beyond that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The world\u2019s best hockey players have left town and the new Convention Centre is no longer packed with legends of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2709"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2720,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2709\/revisions\/2720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}