Does this make an AS game in Portland more likely?

Cost and public transportation would be two reasons. My wife goes to one or two a year and does the same as Brian. She may see a couple of things in each city, so paying extra to go to Miami, Hawaii, or NY are less appealing. Most of the time you are correct in that if there was money to be made in something, someone will build it without the help of the city.

 

The born cynic in me says it will be a dud. The simple population geographically make it almost impossible to get a 10k person national convention to Portland, considering in most national companies, ~68% of all employees work in the east time zone. It's something my friends here at work and I always laugh about. Our national meetings are always in Orlando, because 70% of the 10k attending can get there within a 3 hour flight. Sure, it takes us west coast people an entire day to get there, but those are the percentages, and financially, it makes a lot of sense.

 

So, here is what my company planned for our nights in Orlando at the 8-day meeting March 2013.

Sunday (customer event)- BBQ outside of Orlando convention center w/southern food. Some bands played, tons of vendors giving out stuff, got Tony Dorsett's autograph from some power tool company, etc. ect.

Monday (customer event) - I hosted customers at Universal Studios Orlando. My company shut down the entire park and rented it for 10 thousand people, and every 50 yards or so were free drinks, beers, food, whatever. Rode every ride, got back to my place at midnight.

Tuesday (company only) - rented out Sea World Orlando for 7 thousand people. Got rides on the Manta a few times, and the other rollercoaster there numerous times.

Wednesday (awards ceremony/then dinner) - Rented out every restaurant near the convention center. Spent most of the night at House of Blues drinking Leinenkugel and eating southern food.

Thursday (free night at Hard Rock) - saw Tenacious D play; once again, free booze and free food.

My question is, how can Portland compete with this sort of nightly entertainment, considering the companies that bring 10k to a convention has money to spend and high expectations for their staff.

 

Voodoo Donuts......nom nom nom nom nom!!! Coooooooookie Monsterz.

 

Conventions like the ones PapaG are talking about wouldn't come to Portland regardless of anything. They just want to show off, and a city like Orlando or Vegas gives them the ability to waves their dicks and their bankrolls in everyone's faces. However, there are plenty of mid-level conventions that would love to come to Portland given the right lodging situation, ones that actually want their conventions to get something done rather than be a showcase for how awesome their company is.

Would it be enough to attract an ASG? I don't really know, nor care. I used to think that the NBA's lack of interest in holding an ASG in Portland was a slap in the face of the fans, but ASG's stopped being about the fans a couple of decades ago, now it's just a corporate handout to the NBA's main sponsors, and the locals are mostly shut out of the activities. Given the fact that it would be in February, which is some of the worst weather for the year in Portland, regardless of the brewpubs, Pearl District nightclubs, and local eateries, why would the NBA corporate machine and a pack of rich, entitled 20-something NBA millionaires want to come here? Not for the city. Not for the fans. It isn't about Portland, it's about the NBA. Took me a long time to accept that.

 

The weather is so dismal in Portland around All-star weekend, that I can't imagine the city every being at the top of any list to host a game here - regardless of the state of accommodations or direct flights to PDX

 

Yeah I could care less about the all star game. But I would like to go to Portland for a conference once in a while. The bigger ones I go to are only around 1200 people, but they prefer a hotel where everyone is with in walking distance of the conference hall. A 600 room hotel would be perfect.

When I go to Atlanta the big draw there for the welcome reception is ..... the Aquarium.
In Baltimore it was Camden Yards (After the season was over)

I could go on and on. Yes I go to Orlando and Vegas the most. And I am sick and tired of both.
I an even tired of Bourbon street. (Never i thought I would say that.)

Conferences/tradeshows are not stopping. I get that the industry may be over saturated with to many cities trying to be players, but Portland has a convention center. They just need one big hotel to get more business IMO.

Then they can add a sales tax and actually benefit from all the tourist that come through........

 

New excuse will be that the arena is nearly 20 years old and well past its prime for a ASG unless its renovated and then we are back to the public for $$$ to renovate and then Allen threatens to sell the team again, rinse, wash, repeat.

 

Which is why Vegas and Orlando have huge convention centers and hotels. What mid-level conventions is putting $10m in tax dollars into a Hyatt going to attract? Cheap companies with cheap conventions don't have much of an impact on the local economy.

 

We are your average company. Last week I was at the Bellagio for 5 days and never left the resort. (118 degrees outside was a factor) But every night we spent between $500-$1000 at dinner. (5 people) That could easily have been a nice restaurant in Portland. Our conference of 1200 people easily spent $600,000 in 5 nights just on dinners. Probably a lot more. I bet the local Portland economy would like that.

 

Would your company do it, though? Flights do come into play. We've been trying to get our company to either Vegas or Anaheim, but the east coast people will never do it.

 

Only chance Portland gets an all star team is when they 3 peat

 

This particular one is in Vegas every year. But the others alternate to make everyone happy. NE SW, SE, NW. Midwest......You pretty much have to go.

 

Never gonna happen.