Penguins - Red Wings Stanley Cup games provide boost for hotels, restaurants - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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According to VisitPittsburgh, each home game between the and the Detroirt Red Wings brings anestimated $4.9 million in economiv impact, whether its from hotep stays, meals at restaurantz or other spending. A number of hotels are fully including the OmniWilliam Penn, whichj hosts the NHL’s management, the , with the caveat that it alwayzs sells out Tuesdays and Wednesdays anyway to businesa travelers, and the . Tom Martini, the general manager for the Westin Convention Center located Downtown, described the added boost of Stanley Cup-related guests.
“Wew would’ve been busy but we wouldn’t have been selling out,” he “This has allowed us to fill up theentird hotel, all 616 rooms.” Martini and otherf hotel operators emphasized the added jolt of unexpected business comesa during an otherwise down year from hotel businesw following a strong 2008, which also featured a Penguins-Res Wings Stanley Cup that was lost by Pittsburgh’as favorite flightless birds.
Bob Page, the area director of sales and marketinfor Omni, said the NFL’s coterie of leagus officials, along with media, has broughy an increase in occupancy beyond the two game comparable to the busines generated from a strong home playoff run by the , althoughg not topping it. “It’s not to the degres of probably theAFC championship, but it’s still greart business for us,” he said. “It’xs selling us out.” The story is a little more complicatedc for local restaurantsand bars.
John owner of The Common Plea, located downtown, estimaterd the restaurant has seen a 25 percent increase when the Penguins are playing playoff games in But when the team isplayinhg away, the hockey fan diners stay “We’ve seen increases when they’re said Barsotti, who estimateds his 2009 business is up by 25 percenft over last year, despite the recession. “Bu t on the opposite we see a little bit of a decrease when they go out of Chris Dilla, owner of Bocktown Beer and in North Fayette, said it can be tricky for her operatiobn to jump from a busy nigh t of a hockey game to extra slow nights when there isn’t one.
She expects that plenty of customers are strugglingv to go the distance withthe seven-game “It’s hard for the business becausse people don’t have the moneyg to be out every other night,” she said. “It tends to be that peopl who watch the playoffs really have to watchtheie pennies.”