By Gregg Krupa, Globe Staff, 07/16/98
Major League Baseball, tourism officials, and Boston city officials now predict the 1999 All-Star Game will generate at least $50 million in tourist spending for the city, up sharply from the original $40 million estimate.
They gathered yesterday in Fenway Park to unveil the trademark logos that licensees and sponsors will begin using immediately.
"There is no greater place to have the last All-Star Game of the 20th century than at Fenway Park and in Boston,'' said Red Sox vice president and general manager Daniel F. Duquette. "The city has had a loyal, continuing relationship with professional baseball since 1871 [when the Boston Red Stockings debuted in the old National Association of Professional Baseball Players].
"Together, we're all committed to putting together a great show,'' Duquette said.
Patrick B. Moscaritolo, president and chief executive of the Greater Boston Visitors & Convention Bureau, told the Globe before this year's All-Star Game at Coors Field in Denver last week that the game in Boston would likely generate $40 million in tourist spending -- hotels, restaurants, retail sales, and transportation. But Moscaritolo said he increased the projection after talking with officials of Major League Baseball, and especially after reviewing early revenue returns from what is considered to have been a highly successful week of events in Denver.
"First of all, I try to be quite conservative with those sorts of numbers,'' Moscaritolo said. "But when we looked at some things in Denver like a lot of people -- especially the media and the networks -- staying in their hotels for a few days longer after the game than we had considered, some extra transportation revenue we had not realized, we decided we were really low-balling it.''
Mayor Thomas M. Menino is clearly relishing the competition with other cities, which have realized $28 million to $38.5 million in tourist revenue during All-Star games from 1993 to 1997. Menino said as much as $60 million would be generated for the local tourism and hospitality industries next year.
"I had the opportunity to be out in Denver recently for the All-Star Game,'' Menino said. "They haven't seen anything yet. We're going to have the best All-Star Game here in Boston.''
Menino joined Dr. Gene Budig, president of the American League, and other officials in unveiling the primary logo for the game, which was mounted temporarily on the legendary left field wall at Fenway Park. The logo, one of about three dozen marks for the 1999 game on which Major League Baseball has obtained trademarks, is emblazoned with the words "Boston All-Star Game '99'' on a broad green background that is intended to suggest the beloved Green Monster.
The primary logo and the others will be omnipresent in the city by June 1 of next year, but official licensees of products bearing Major League Baseball's marks have already been produced and will be on sale as early as today at some retailers and souvenir shops.
Numerous companies throughout New England pay fees to use the registered marks, either as licensees or sponsors of the game. That revenue is distributed among the two leagues and the 30 franchises, according to an official with Major League Baseball Properties, who wouldn't put a dollar figure on that revenue.
Among the local and regional companies involved are Reebok International Ltd., Starter Corp., and even Nancy's Sales, a Massachusetts manufacturer of pillow cases.
