Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Weekend's events a boon to almost all
By Maggie Downs
Enquirer staff writer
Sure, there were people guzzling beer, bratwurst and sauerkraut balls all over the streets at Oktoberfest-Zinzinnati.
But the crowd was also standing room only at O'Malley's in the Alley bar and grill on West Ogden Place.
"We were unbelievably busy all weekend," said bartender, manager and sometime cook Melissa Wells. "People were pouring out into the alley."
The place ended up raking in "big numbers. Huge," Wells said. "It was a really great weekend for everyone downtown, I think."
Queen City Fusion weekend - a melange of three Cincinnati Reds games, the Bengals home opener, a Van Halen concert, the gridiron match of the P&G Ohio Classic and Jamboree, and the world's largest Oktoberfest outside of Germany - wrapped up Sunday.
A study by the University of Cincinnati Center for Economic Education estimates more then 750,000 people came downtown and infused $72.7 million into the regional economy.
The breakdown of the crowd includes 140,000 at the Cincinnati Reds games, 65,000 to see the Bengals and 35,000 at the Ohio Classic. Those numbers come from the attendance figures.
It's difficult to confirm the estimated crowd of 500,000 for Oktoberfest-Zinzinnati, however, since there aren't ticket sales to track.
"I believe there was some kind of quantifiable count a couple years ago (of Oktoberfest attendance), based on traffic and what the vendors do," said Damon Jones, chairperson of Queen City Fusion. "But the numbers aren't raised every year. It's a very conservative estimate."
The 750,000 calculation also doesn't include attendance for the 20 Days/20 Nights arts festival events, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Ohio Classic events other than the football game.
The $72.7 million figure counts the revenues of the major events and the related spending of out-of-town visitors.
At best, estimates
"We counted things like attendance dollars and the average amount of money people would spend if they didn't have a choice but to eat and stay the night in Cincinnati," Jones said. "But there is some spending that is so hard to quantify ... So this is a fairly conservative estimate, too."
Spending by local people brought $30 million to downtown businesses, according to the UC study, but that figure is not included in the economic impact calculations.
They guess restaurant, hotel and parking businesses benefit the most.
Lots owned by Central Parking, which owns about 50 percent of parking lots downtown, certainly did see increased traffic.
"I wish every weekend could be as exciting and as eventful," said general manager Andy Barlow.
He was quick to defend parking prices, some of which were inflated for the weekend's activities.
"People always blame parking for everything," he said. "But people from Chicago were here and they said, 'It's 10 bucks to park here and I can see the stadium?' It's two, three times that in other cities."
The weekend's activities also generated $22.7 million in earnings for local workers.
The main draw
Yet while the folks in lederhosen and chicken hats clamored through downtown blocks from Race to Broadway, the people at Nicholson's Tavern & Pub on Walnut Street didn't see any of them.
"Had it rained, we would have had a great weekend," said general manager Mary Hanson. "But Oktoberfest does away with all of our dining business."
The same thing happened last year during a September weekend boasting a lot of downtown events.
"Just like this past weekend, we geared up and we didn't get a thing," Hanson said. "There were people all over the streets, and traffic was backed up all over Walnut.
