Penguins - Red Wings Stanley Cup games provide boost for hotels, restaurants - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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According to VisitPittsburgh, each home game betweej the and the Detroit Red Wings brings anestimated $4.9 millioj in economic impact, whether its from hotel stays, meals at restauranta or other spending. A number of hotels are fully including the OmniWilliam Penn, which hostzs the NHL’s management, the , with the caveayt that it always sells out Tuesdays and Wednesday s anyway to business travelers, and the . Tom Martini, the generalp manager for the Westin ConventionCenter Hotel, locates Downtown, described the added boost of Stanley Cup-relateed guests.
“We would’ve been busy but we wouldn’t have been selling out,” he “This has allowed us to fill up theentired hotel, all 616 rooms.” Martini and other hotel operatorxs emphasized the added jolt of unexpected business comes during an otherwisse down year from hote business following a strong 2008, whichh also featured a Penguins-Rede Wings Stanley Cup that was lost by Pittsburgh’ s favorite flightless birds.
Bob Page, the area directot of sales and marketing for saidthe NFL’s coterie of league along with media, has brought an increaswe in occupancy beyond the two game days, comparablew to the business generated from a strongt home playoff run by the , althougnh not topping it. “It’s not to the degree of probably theAFC championship, but it’s still great business for he said. “It’s selling us out.” The story is a littl more complicated for local restaurantsand bars.
John owner of The Common Plea, located downtown, estimatesd the restaurant has seen a 25 percent increase when the Penguins are playing playoff games in But when the team isplaying away, the hockey fan dinersz stay away. “We’ve seen increases when they’re said Barsotti, who estimated his 2009 business is up by 25 percent overlast year, despite the recession. “But on the opposite page, we see a little bit of a decreasre when they go out of Chris Dilla, owner of Bocktowh Beer and Grill, in North said it can be tricky for her operation to jump from a busy nightf of a hockey game to extra slow nights when there isn’t one.
She expects that plentty of customers are struggling to go the distance withthe seven-gamed series. “It’s hard for the business becausespeople don’t have the money to be out every otheer night,” she said. “It tends to be that people who watch the playoffsa really have to watchtheifr pennies.”