Just to echo Robb's comment:
 
For all Hockey-Lers who were went to Providence: check your hotel bill. You
will see the amount paid for the room and just below it NOT ONLY the normal
sales tax but a "special" local tax. CHA-CHING.
Add to that the tips for the drinks and food and the Hockey-L dinner. Cha-ching.
 
 
The Frozen Four revenue spent locally is at a maximum of $450,000 ($80 per
room for three days plus the same in food and drink times over 10,000 people
of the sold out crowd who were non-residents) of which hopefully one-third
falls as INCOME to local workers. BUT THAT IS PROBABLY NOT WHY THE CITY BIDS.
 
PROVIDENCE NOW HAS ITS NAME CONNECTED WITH COLLEGE HOCKEY (again). So does
Anahiem, and Albany, and St. Paul. And Providence has established an equal
footing with those cities. Their bid to the NCAA are advertising dollars that
they cannot get too many other ways. There is a price towns are willing to pay
for this name recognition. They pay it to the NCAA instead of to Ron Mason,
Jack Parker, Anson Carter, Karl Goering, or other coaches and players in
college hockey. Cannot you see the bright smile of Michael Jordan or Wayne
Gretzky saying "I had a great time in Providence, it's a wonderful city"?
Instead of paying Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky for such a commerecial, they
pay the NCAA a lump of cash for the right to host the Frozen Four. It almost
gets the same job done, though reaches a smaller audience.
 
Should I now start kicking around the idea that the NCAA is a monopoly? Or is
that a dead horse?
 
Nathan Eric Hampton
 
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