A coalition of north metro cities is creating a new convention and visitors bureau that will capitalize on the area's potential for sports tourism, anchored by Blaine's National Sports Center and the TPC Twin Cities golf course.

Late last year, Blaine, Coon Rapids and Shoreview gave the required one-year notice that they were ending their relationship with Visit Minneapolis North, which represents a swath of cities from Shoreview in the east around the Interstate 694 loop to Maple Grove in the west. Ham Lake, Fridley, Anoka and Mounds View gave their notice in April. Lino Lakes and New Brighton are new members.

The consortium is ironing out membership details and working with the National Sports Center and the Metro North Chamber of Commerce to organize the legal framework of the nonprofit group. Over the next 60 days, they'll continue to make staffing decisions and consider a name and a direction. Organizers hope to have the group up and running by Jan. 1, 2010, when the first three cities' relationship with Visit Minneapolis North officially ends.

Blaine, Coon Rapids and Shoreview left Visit Minneapolis North last year over a concern that VMN was too focused on shopping and convention opportunities in cities west of the Mississippi River, and that their own amenities got short shrift.

"Visit Minneapolis North was a very large group, geographically, and there was a general feeling among cities east of the Mississippi River that there is more in common among those communities than with the three communities to the west," said Blaine City Manager Clark Arneson.

The new group, which will aim to draw both travelers and conventioneers to the member cities, will be funded by the same 3 percent hotel tax that supports Visit Minneapolis North and other convention and visitors' bureaus in Minnesota. The idea is that no individual city has the resources to market itself and its amenities alone, but that in cross-marketing, a region can share resources.

"The vision is to have a very quick-responding convention and visitors bureau that is focused on the primary assets of this area, which are sports tourism and including selected meeting, convention and selected leisure promotion," said John Connelly, director of sales and development for the National Sports Center.

Coon Rapids City Manager Matt Fulton noted that the benefits go two ways.

"You can promote your own community and the assets your community provides, but it's also a recognition that tourism and conventions really do take on a regional scale," he said.

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409