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The Next Big Thing

Now that Minnesota is on the clock for hosting Super Bowl LII, our Meet Minneapolis team is frequently asked how much of our time is being spent on helping to ensure the success of that event. The answer is usually “a lot of our time, but…” The “but” comes into play because as the official destination marketing organization for the city, we must keep our attention on the future and the groups that are in their decision-making cycles now. If we miss these windows of opportunity, we run the risk of having gaping holes in our future convention calendar.

We are all aware of those large, high-profile events that can change the public’s perception of a destination. I have often referred to how Atlanta’s trajectory as a first tier convention destination was accelerated by hosting the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. New arenas, convention center expansions, a new stadium, major public green spaces, cultural institutions and hotels have followed. Atlanta is now always in the conversation among cities that can host anything.

For Minneapolis and its environs, these game-changers include an MLB All Star Game, a Ryder Cup, a Super Bowl, two X Games, and a Final Four from 2014-2019. We can look with some level of satisfaction and accomplishment in having secured these events with lead times of as much as 14 years for the Ryder Cup. Our region had another the big run of major events in the early 1990s that included our first Super Bowl and there was a great deal of pride then, too. But sadly a long major event drought period followed.

Our next big thing could actually come in 2023 now that Minnesota is the official United States candidate destination to host the 2023 World’s Fair. Expo CEO and former Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie reported this and other details to the Meet Minneapolis board at its most recent meeting.

According to Ritchie, “the next step in this process is a site visit, formally called an Enquiry Mission that will bring eight leaders from the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) to the United States for a week of consultations in Minnesota and Washington, D.C. This site visit team will submit a final report on Minnesota’s bid to the BIE’s General Assembly in June of 2017. At the June meeting Minnesota will make a 30-minute presentation to the assembled representatives of the 169 BIE member nations.”

On Feb. 7, our formal bid was submitted by the Minnesota World’s Fair Bid Committee to the BIE, the global body that will choose one of three finalists: Minnesota; Buenos Aires; and Lodz, Poland. 2016 Summer Olympics Games host Rio De Janeiro recently withdrew its intent to bid.

There has been an amazingly high level of bipartisan support for Minnesota’s bid at the federal government level that has transcended the change in administrations. U.S. Representative Tom Emmer and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar have led the efforts of a unanimous Minnesota delegation in aggressively pursuing the 2023 World’s Fair.

Among other major events that fall into the category of “the next big thing” are another run at a College Football Playoff. New Orleans was awarded the year we had originally pursued. Another NCAA Final Four may be in the cards and interestingly, the next series of future years will be awarded in advance of our 2019 Final Four hosting responsibilities. And an NBA All Star Game would look awfully good in a newly transformed Target Center.

Our hospitality industry cannot survive only on these major events and thankfully we continue to have tremendous success in recruiting and hosting events with lower profiles. But we will continue to pursue the next big thing because these events always help us to stay in the conversation.