A few months back I wrote about the return of Sail Boston. For those readers outside of Boston this is a world-class tall ships festival. When I last wrote about this, they were having some problems. You see, this festival is known for drawing millions of visitors. The last time they were in Boston (2001), the event drew 7.5 million people. This put a lot of financial pressure on the City of Boston especially when it came to security and other city services.
This year, the city told the organizers they would not be able to have the event in Boston unless they raised $1 million for security and other city services. The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority came through with the funds and the event was back on. The festival was scaled back and slightly changed to accommodate the city. With these changes the organizers estimated 800,000 people would attend. This past weekend was the event. Guess what, an estimated 3.1 million people attended. Organizers stated the event was a big success.
After discussing with “people in the know” about the city’s issues, I understand their problem. They are in a catch 22. The City wants events to come but they don’t have the money to provide the services. The sales taxes raised during the event do not go to the city but to the state. However, the restaurants, hotels, and retail stores in Boston do gain a lot from these events. In fact, some were quoted in the media about how successful their weekend was.
Maybe a fund should be set up to help with city services during these events. Boston is a world-class city. They should host world-class events. These world-class events should be a win-win for everybody.
This event and others like it prove that the public wants cool events. They want to be entertained. They want to see things that are out of the norm. We as event marketers have a great opportunity to make this happen.
Tags: City of Boston, Events, festivals, Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, MCCA, Sail Boston, tall ship festival, world-class events
July 17, 2009 at 10:09 am
I cannot believe I’m about to offer this as an alternative, but in my city, we’ve got something called an “Amusement Tax” which is enacted for exactly this kind of thing.
(Before I go further, I must say that I’m actually *fighting* my city on the current incarnation of the tax which demands ten percent of a promoters gross ticket sales…which is the highest in the country…thereby hindering smaller promoters and lessening the profits of the 300-500 capacity show market)
I’ve argued that the tax *is* justified (to a degree) to offset the wear-and-tear and additional burden placed upon a city’s infrastructure when 10 or 20 thousand people come in for a concert or large event…BUT – being a small market, the tax makes absolutely no sense here…but perhaps in Boston something (more reasonable than ten percent of the gate) could be beneficial…
July 17, 2009 at 10:14 am
I am surprised that Boston has not already thought about this. Knowing Boston, they will want to beat NJ for the higher percertage. Thanks for the comment!
July 17, 2009 at 12:38 pm
It’s actually Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
(I know, the name’s deceptive.)