City wooing All-Star Game
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> By Kevin Osborne
> Post staff reporter
>
> City officials are teaming up with the Cincinnati Reds in an effort to
> convince Major League Baseball to bring the All-Star Game here in 2006.
> A team headed by Vice Mayor Alicia Reece and John Allen, the Reds' chief
> operating officer, plans to mount a lobbying effort on behalf of Great
> American Ball Park.
> Reece, Allen and local convention and visitors bureau staff hope to meet
> this summer with Bud Selig, Major League Baseball's commissioner, if a
> resolution of support is passed this week by City Council.
> Approval of the resolution -- which would commit to letting the league use
> the city-owned convention center for the All-Star-related Fan Fest event
in
> the week leading up to the game -- is likely.
> This year's game is being held in Chicago.
> Allen said today that the Reds had a "strategy planning session" with the
> city about seeking the All Star game for either 2006 or 2008.
> City support to land an All Star game would be "essential," said Allen. In
> fact, he said, "it can't just be the city and the Cincinnati Reds. It
would
> have to be a regional effort," Allen said.
> There are now many more events surrounding the game since the Reds last
> hosted an All Star game.
> "It's a major, major event compared to what it was in '88," Allen said.
"Now
> it has evolved into a weeklong event."
> A decision on where the 2006 game will be played is expected later this
> summer, Reece said. Among the cities vying for the game is St. Louis.
> "We have a good chance because we have a new stadium and a support team
that
> is committed and excited about pursuing this," Reece said.
> Also, a long-planned convention center expansion will be completed that
year
> and the All-Star Game's Fan Fest would be a fitting inaugural event, the
> vice mayor added.
> The game and related events would help boost the city's struggling
> convention and hotel markets, which have seen declines due to the April
2001
> riots and a subsequent economic boycott by some local civil rights groups.
> "We're going to aggressively go after these kinds of events," Reece said.
> "We can't afford to pay for national advertising, but with these events we
> get national exposure and bring people to town who will spend money and,
> hopefully, use word of mouth to spread the good things going on in
> Cincinnati."
> In other cities that have hosted the game, about 250,000 fans have
attended
> All-Star-related events, with about 80,000 to 100,000 at the Fan Fest.
> Overall, the event and related activities typically generate about $50
> million in economic impact.
>
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> Publication Date: 06-10-2003
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