News of the Arroyo
Title: | Tourism Report Card |
Subtitle: | |
Date: | 2003-05-15 |
Summary: | May 15, 2003 - Two substantialy different views for tourism generation are offered at Pasadena's annual Tourism Industry breakfast. |
Author: | Andrew Blazier, Staff Writer |
Publication: | Pasadena Star News |
Content: | NFL team seen as key to draw people; partnership official says area already has value By Andrew Blazier, Staff Writer PASADENA -- John Moag hopes to attract tourist spending in Pasadena with a future National Football League franchise. Phil Hawkey believes the entire San Gabriel Valley has great tourism value right now. The two men spoke at length Wednesday during the city\'s fourth annual Tourism Industry Breakfast. Although they both talked glowingly of Pasadena, their visions were extremely different. Moag, chief executive officer of Baltimore, Md.-based sports finance firm Moag & Co. , helped bring the NFL\'s Ravens team to Baltimore in 1996. As a consultant to the Rose Bowl, he\'s trying to do the same in Pasadena. At Wednesday\'s breakfast at Pasadena Civic Auditorium, Moag outlined a vision for the future in which an NFL team playing at the Rose Bowl could lure millions of dollars of out- of-town revenue. He spoke of the virtues of a team for the coffers of City Hall and hundreds of businesses in the city\'s upscale Old Pasadena shopping district that stand to benefit greatly from money spent during visits to prospective games. \"They\'re going to spend a lot of money,\' Moag told 165 guests. \"They are going to come back, and when they do, I think you want to get them.\' Moag compared Pasadena\'s efforts to attract the NFL to Baltimore\'s creation of a baseball stadium during the 1990s to retain the Orioles franchise. During the Orioles\' first season at Camden Yards, they drew about 4 million fans to the ball park. John Moag, Chairman & Chief Executive Office of Moag & Company/Rose Bowl Stadium Consultant speaking about the progress on bringing a NFL team to the Rose Bowl Stadium and the proposed renovation of the Rose Bowl. (Staff photo by Walt Mancini) While Moag talked of the city\'s tourism future, Hawkey, the executive vice president at the University of La Verne and the chairman of the Irwindale-based San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership , said the economic present - for both Pasadena and the entire Valley - is already bright, if not overlooked. \"There are many assets for the San Gabriel Valley that are not widely understood,\' Hawkey said. \"We have a strong economy. What I\'m trying to do is point out significant assets we could leverage to encourage more investment.\' Hawkey\'s comments were supported by news earlier in the week that Pasadena\'s economy fared much better than most other U.S. destination cities during down times the past two years. Visitor spending in the city fell 1.2 percent since 2000, while tourism sites such as Dallas and San Francisco experienced double- digit declines in spending. Pasadena currently is home to 98,000 private-sector jobs, Hawkey said, a 5-percent increase during the last decade. That is less than half the job growth rate of the entire Valley, which increased jobs by 11 percent in the last 10 years. Hawkey said the city can continue to thrive as the \"driver of the economic engine\' of the Valley, both through jobs and through the area\'s high concentration of higher education institutions. \"This whole region makes us a centerpiece for tourism in the region,\' he said. \"The San Gabriel Valley is a generator of intellectual energy. That makes it attractive for new investment.\' Andrew Blazier can be reached at (626) 962-8811, Ext. 2477, or by e-mail at andrew.blazier@sgvn.com. |
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