doodledee

The Minnesota Wild kick-off their first post-lockout season on Wednesday night over at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. I didn't really pay attention to all the gory details of the final agreement between the players and the owners, but a quick check of the pre-season standings shows that Florida and Phoenix still have teams, so there's clearly plenty of work left to be done to "fix" professional hockey.

But really, who cares, because ALL THOSE FANS are coming back to downtown. And we all know what they bring with them when they come, don't we? You got it: MONEY. And with money comes taxes and with taxes comes the almighty salvation known simply as Economic Impact. And lo, a great joy swelled up from within' Tom Reid's Hockey Pub, for It was good.

MPR ran a story today hyping the impact. They started by interviewing the management of Tom Reid's and The Liffey and - surprise! - they're as excited as a dog in a fire hydrant factory that thousands of rowdy hockey fans are primed and ready to descend on their bars and fork over $6.50 for a beer. And I guess I don't blame them for feeling that way (and for talking a bunch of idiot-speak about how great the games are for the local economy). The reality is that they probably got bitchslapped pretty hard by the lockout and from their perspective the return of hockey can do nothing but help them be successful. And that's clearly good for their economy, so I say go get ‘em.

But then later in the story there's this quote from the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce.

The economic impact of the Wild cannot be overstated, according to the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber's Ellen Watters says doing the math on Wild games means big money for St. Paul. Forty-four games, at an average of $45 per ticket. Then, add $10 for food and drinks or mementos, and that adds up to the Wild generating an estimated $3 million in state sales-tax receipts. $217,000 of that goes to the city of St. Paul.

Sweeeeeet! I love math! Especially when it shows that all those frickin' games only [directly] kick back a measly $220,000 to the city of St. Paul. Ha!

Well I can do math, too. Check it out:

• $220,000 is less than a dollar per resident. Ha again.
• Some quick googling shows that the average police officer salary in St. Paul is around $85k. Add in benefits and a police car and crap like that and, optimistically, all those Wild Bucks would only pay for 2 new cops on the streets. Does that even offset the cost of patrolling the arena on game nights?
• Some more googling reveals that they could probably get 2-3 nice new snowplows and some dudes to drive them.

But the real point here is that EVEN THE TWINS have dropped the Economic Impact argument when it comes to stadium talk, so why can't the media? Seriously, I like going to the games, they're a fun time and it's a cool atmosphere, but like many other things in big cities, the whole hockey thing is just a "luxury". And I don't mean on an individual level, I mean on a community level. (I also mean on the Club Level, which I'd be happy to join you on in your VIP suite, thanksalot.)

Hockey returns to the "State of Hockey" [mpr]
St. Paul Police Salary Info [salary]
Used Snowplows [snowplownews]
sid hartman update: doesn't read the business section [doodledee]