Can sports dome boost West St. Paul economy?

West St. Paul has high hopes for its community sports dome being built next to City Hall and just a soccer kick away from the Robert Street retail strip.

Community Development Director Jim Hartshorn says the city is counting on the dome to draw more people to Robert Street, jumpstart business and "put West St. Paul more on the map."

"We would like to see more new things pop up," he said. "But even if it just enhances what we already have, that would be a great economic boost." The city is now asking the state to finance part of the project's $7 million cost, applying for a $3.45 million capital project grant.

But experts say there's scant evidence that publicly financed sports domes, even if they eventually pay for themselves, are drivers for their local economies.

Stephen Ross, an associate professor of sport management at the University of Minnesota, said he knows of no studies showing sports domes' financial impact. "Even for professional facilities like Target Field or the new Vikings stadium, the economic benefits are typically overstated," he said. "At the youth sports level, the impact is virtually nil."

Still, West St. Paul isn't the only city betting a community sports facility can be a magnet, pulling in more revenue for local merchants.

"Anybody who has kids in sports who participate in tournaments knows that you drop dollars when you go to another town," said Barry Stock, city administrator in Savage, which also is building a sports dome. Although Savage is building it as a convenience for residents, Stock said another goal is to keep more of that spending in town.

Examples elsewhere

Opened in 2010, the Vadnais Heights Sports Center not only has fallen short of its own revenue projections but has yet to spark interest from developers in three vacant parcels that are part of the site. "It takes time to put together deals," said City Manager Gerald Urban, who attributed the lack of activity to tight lending markets that have made it more difficult to finance commercial projects.

Ross said money taken in by merchants near community complexes is mostly being shifted from other shops and restaurants in a different part of town. "Most of it is not new money," he said.

An exception is the National Sports Center (NSC) in Blaine, he said. "That really is unique. I don't think anybody guessed that it would turn out to be as big a deal as it is," Ross said.

Opened in 1990, the NSC is considered the world's largest amateur sports complex, with facilities that include an 8,500-seat stadium, an eight-sheet ice rink, a cycling velodrome and more than 50 fields. Spokesman Barclay Kruse said the facility generates more than $37 million a year in spending from out-of-state visitors. But he said there's no way to know exactly how much of that is spent in stores, restaurants or hotels in Blaine.

But retail industry experts agree with Ross that community sports domes can't be compared with the Blaine complex, whose tournaments draw visitors from around the world. A city with a sports dome might not see much increase in business for its hotels even if overnight visitors are coming from places like Rochester or Duluth for tournaments, said hotel consultant Kirby Payne.

"Those teams might want to stay by the Mall of America or downtown [Minneapolis], close to Target Center or Target Field," he said. And West St. Paul, for instance, doesn't have hotels anyway.

Hopes for Robert Street

Richard Grones, whose Edina-based Cambridge Commercial Realty specializes in the retail market, said West St. Paul has made progress in revitalizing the Robert Street corridor in the past several years. The commercial strip now has both a Wal-Mart and a SuperTarget and has added several smaller quick-serve restaurants including Panera and Noodles & Co. "They have it going in the right direction," he said.

Retail expert Mike Sims agrees, but says the kind of merchants Robert Street needs are not those likely to be drawn by a sports dome. "The area still needs an apparel and softlines retailer like a Herberger's or a Kohl's. I don't see that going with a sports complex," said Sims, a principal at the Minnesota office of Mid-America Real Estate Group. He said Robert Street also lacks sit-down restaurants, another type of business not typically visited by sports dome users.

Hartshorn said West St. Paul officials understand it will take time to see the economic benefits from the sports dome.

"If we waited for the market to improve by itself we wouldn't have the businesses that we have added in the last few years," he said. "The dome is one more marketing piece we can add."