WORKSHOP ITEM Erik Thorvig, Economic Development Coordinator
Title
3M TOURNAMENT HOSPITALITY TENT
Background
The 3M Championship is July 31 - August 6 this year. For several years the City of Blaine and Anoka County have co-hosted a hospitality tent on Thursday-Sunday of the tournament. In general, the purpose of the tent is to invite and network with guests in the real estate and development industry along with targeted perspective businesses for Blaine. In addition, we invite many of our existing businesses as an appreciation for their contributions to the City of Blaine. Last year 100 tickets per day were given out to Blaine invitees. There is also professional economic development programming that occurs on Thursday and Friday morning. Programming in the past has featured Greater MSP, Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development and others. Representatives from cities in Anoka County are invited to attend the programming.
Blaine staff has been made aware that Anoka County will not be co-hosting the hospitality tent this year, however will still be an event sponsor through a $100,000 contribution. The city manager and I met with the tournament director to discuss our options with the absence of Anoka County as a co-host. She indicated that the Blaine EDA can host the same tent (50’x50’) or have a smaller 33’x33’ tent. Typically 200 tickets are made available each day between Anoka County and the City of Blaine. Without the county’s participation our ticket allotment would likely be increased to 150 per day, however the overall attendees in the tent would be reduced by 50 people. As such we wanted to understand what the smaller tent option would be if we have less people overall.
The financial contribution by the Blaine EDA would remain at $100,000 with the addition of food/beverage which typically is $25,000-$30,000. This EDA budget item will come for approval in June once we have final numbers.
Recommendation
Discuss which tent option the Blaine EDA would like for 2017 and provide any other direction in regards to tent invitees, programming, etc.