World Cup fuels future plans
Photo/Whit Richardson
Peter Pinette, owner of Rock's Family Diner in Fort Kent, says the World Cup biathlon boosted business in an otherwise slow season
It’s not hard to imagine the immediate economic impact that occurs when 700 Europeans — athletes, coaches and support staff from 24 countries, television crews from Germany and media from all over — and thousands of spectators descend on a small town like Fort Kent for four days of World Cup biathlon events.
“For the staff, it was all hands on deck,” says Peter Pinette, owner of Rock’s Family Diner in Fort Kent, taking a short break from his busy restaurant. Pinette extended his hours and hired some extra help to handle the influx of business the biathlon competitions brought to the town.
Preliminary estimates put the number of spectator visits (one person could create multiple spectator visits if they went to multiple days of the events) at the events in Presque Isle and Fort Kent at 31,000.
Local business owners like Pinette say the extra business has offered a much-needed boost and made up for the large numbers of snowmobilers that were absent in January because of a lack of snow. “January was a blood bath,” says Carl Pelletier, manager of Northern Door Inn in Fort Kent. “[The lack of snow] cost us $20,000 in cancellations.”
But the hotel has been booked solid for the week of competitions since July. The biathlon events brought “eight or nine thousand dollars of additional business we didn’t have,” Pelletier says.
Mike Voisine, owner of Miller’s Department Store, got the contract to handle concessions at the Fort Kent event and hired 10 additional people for two weeks to help out. “We’ve had a slow start to the snowmobile season and this helps the whole community get back on its feet,” he says. “It generates a whole lot of traffic.”
The World Cup biathlon competitions in Presque Isle and Fort Kent in early February were estimated to generate a $10 million economic impact, according to event organizers. But it’s the intangible benefits that may have the biggest impacts in the long run.
Leveraging momentum
In addition to the thousands of spectators who attended the seven days of events in Presque Isle and Fort Kent, there were 120 million television viewers in Europe, where biathlon is the most popular winter sport.
That means Maine and Aroostook County had a captive audience of 120 million potential visitors for nearly two weeks, says Andy Shepard, founder and president of the Maine Winter Sports Center, which over the past 10 years has spent nearly $25 million to turn the Nordic Heritage Ski Center in Presque Isle and the 10th Mountain Ski Center in Fort Kent into world-class racing venues. It’s that extended exposure that could pay off in the future, Shepard says.
“The hope is that those 120 million people watching would connect with Aroostook County and want to find out more about it,” he says. “I hope in three, four, five years we have been able to continue the momentum from those 120 million impressions and we are driving people to Aroostook County as a result.”
In pursuit of that goal, the Maine Winter Sports Center launched in September a website for the European audience called discovernorthernmaine.com. The website — available in German, French and English — offers information about the region, the recreational activities it offers, as well as a clearinghouse for information about the World Cup events.
Matt McHatten, a senior VP at MMG Insurance in Presque Isle, one of the local sponsors, believes the future benefits of the biathlon races could be huge. “We’re known for having a long, snowy winter and in the sport of biathlon that’s a huge advantage,” he says. “It’s definitely going to bring another dimension to what we’re known for as a region and as a state.”
But tourism isn’t the only industry in the crosshairs. Walt Elish, president of the Aroostook Partnership for Progress, is talking to the Maine International Trade Center about leveraging the exposure from the biathlon events to make connections with the renewable energy and IT sectors in Europe, perhaps with a trade mission. “We’d like to use the World Cup visibility as an opportunity to open doors up there,” Elish says.
Annette Bossler, who works with the trade center to promote Maine in Germany, has been tracking the German media coverage of the events and doesn’t think that’s a far-fetched hope. “I think it is up to us to now leverage this event,” Bossler writes from Germany. “I am currently in Germany meeting with different renewable energy companies to promote Maine. In the meeting today, it was helpful that I could refer to the biathlon; it helps to put ‘Maine on the map’ and it gives people here something to relate to.”
But Shepard says work still needs to be done if Aroostook County wants to host another pair of World Cup events in the future. While the organizing committees, volunteers and venues in Presque Isle and Fort Kent are all world-class, one area lacking is hotel infrastructure in Fort Kent, he says. Finding lodging for members of 24 teams proved challenging this time around. That challenge could be compounded next time when 30 World Cup teams are expected.
Shepard, who founded the Maine Winter Sports Center on the principle of finding sustainable economic models for rural communities, plans to dedicate a large amount of his time to attracting a hotel to Fort Kent. He believes the area, with its abundant recreational activities and natural resources, offers a “robust business model” for a hotel interested in recreational tourism. As an example, he holds up the new Hampton Inn in Presque Isle. He credits the Nordic Heritage Center as one of the draws that attracted investors to build that hotel. Now it’s doing well, and new restaurants are opening up in town.
“This is exactly what the Maine Winter Sports Center was envisioned to do: create a robust economic environment for the private sector,” Shepard says. “And it’s happening in Presque Isle. Now we need to focus our attention on Fort Kent and see if can’t get the same activity going on there.”
If Fort Kent landed another hotel, Shepard is confident Aroostook County could host the World Cup biathlon events every two years. “The organizing committee and volunteers in Fort Kent are as good as any in the world,” he says. “They deserve the infrastructure ... to be able to put on these events on a regular basis.”
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