Final Four is a great get for Minneapolis, say city leaders

One day after Minneapolis was chosen to host the 2019 Final Four basketball tournament, local business and community leaders were gushing over the business and publicity it will attract.

"It puts Minneapolis in front of a global audience," said John Luke, general manager of the downtown Hilton Hotel, who predicted his hotel will be jammed in the days leading up to the final games. Luke is also vice chairman of Meet Minneapolis, which assembled the committee that won the Final Four bid.

The '19 Final Four is the latest hot-ticket sporting event to come to Minnesota, joining this summer's Major League Baseball's All-Star Game; the 2016 Ryder Cup, which will be held at Hazeltine National Golf Court in Chaska, and the 2018 Super Bowl, which will be played in the Minnesota Vikings' new stadium in downtown Minneapolis. Final Four tourneys were also played in Minneapolis in 1992 and 2001.

As the field of NCAA tournament teams is pared over a three-week period, the "Road to Minneapolis" will be front and center and give the region lots of exposure, predicted Bill Lester, former executive director of the commission that ran the Metrodome, which hosted two Final Fours during his tenure. "A lot of people love the event," he said.

Michele Kelm-Helgen, chair of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Authority, said she felt "very relieved" to have won the bid.

"It's just been fun to see the reaction from people all over," she said. "It's really fantastic, to have Minnesota recognized as an exciting destination, to see Minnesota back on the map."

She said that landing the 2018 Super Bowl and '19 Final Four even before the new Vikings stadium is completed could lead to other groups choosing it for major events, including music festivals and conventions.

The Final Four bid focused on three key points, said Scott Romane, executive director of Sports Minneapolis, a division of Meet Minneapolis.

Those were that "we are an incredibly interconnected city, easy to get to, easy to get around"; second was the "incredible new venue" of the new football stadium with "wonderful sight lines," and third was that "we are a community that delivers," having hosted previous Final Fours and other major sports events.

Steve Maki, senior stadium director, said about 10,000 temporary seats will be added and that the venue will be "more intimate than the Metrodome in terms of sightline distance" from the basketball court.

There is not yet an estimate on how much money the tournament will bring to Minneapolis, Romane said. Previous Final Fours have attracted $70 million to $200 million.

While the event will have economic impact, "I would be cautious to predict that it's $200 million," said Mark Stenglein, former CEO of the Downtown Council in Minneapolis. "Look what happened with the All-Star Game [the baseball game that was played at Target Field last July]. It was very much overstated what it would bring in."

The Final Four is "probably less of a high-buck crowd," said Martin Goff, senior vice president of UNITE HERE Local 17, the union representing hospitality workers in the Twin Cities. "It's the beginning of the busy season. … It will increase business for the hotels and restaurants."

Paul Ridgeway, who has worked on preparations and logistics for many major sports events, including the Final Four, said the metro area will benefit from having a second airport terminal for charter planes and expanded light rail that will ease transportation problems.

"The biggest fear would be a late snowstorm," Ridgeway said. "You don't want snow, but you have to prepare for that."

The Final Four also is sure to attract a less desirable crowd — criminals. At the 2001 Final Four, Minneapolis police Sgt. Al Berryman headed a detail that arrested pickpockets and people selling forged Final Four tickets and basketball merchandise, such as T-shirts that were not licensed by the NCAA.

Berryman, now retired, said he was also watching out for NCAA coaches who were selling off their tickets, which violates NCAA rules. "There were tickets going for $3,000," he said.

Twitter: @randyfurst