Its amazing what a box of apples, a couple of golf shirts, and a few bottles of wine can do for a city.


A hodgepodge of items like these added just enough pizzazz to give Spokane the edge it needed to win its bid for the 2007 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, says Barb Beddor. She and her husband, Toby Steward, run Spokane-based Star USA Inc., the company that led Spokanes effort to land the event.


All the different little nuances came online at the same time, she says. It in some way feels that all the stars aligned for us.


Star USA estimates that the championships, slated for Jan. 21-28 of that year, will have a $30 million economic impact here, based on reports from other cities that have hosted the event, Beddor says. Other local officials are saying that with more than 100,000 visitors expected, the event could bring Spokane more visitor revenue than any other event ever held here.


When Star USA began organizing the pitch for Spokane to host the skating championships, it recognized the need to pay attention to details, Beddor says. The couple knew from past experience, when they helped land the Skate America competition for Spokane in 2002, that unique marketing techniques can help make Spokane more appealing, she says.


Once U.S. Figure Skating announced Spokane as a finalist for the 2007 championships, the husband-and-wife team made a point of identifying wow factorsdifferent things they could do or emphasize to make Spokane stand out from fellow finalists Boston and Hershey, Penn., Beddor says.


They concentrated their efforts on doing research on a number of U.S. Figure Skating officials before they came to visit Spokane last December, she says.


Beddor and Steward arranged for the officials to stay at the Davenport Hotel, and put in each room a bottle of Arbor Crest wine with a 2007 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane logo etched onto it and a complementary golf shirt. For a little extra charm, they ordered each of the officials wives robes from the Davenport with their initials embroidered on the lapels, Beddor says.


The newspaper the officials received at their hotel room doors contained a special future insert, declaring Another national skating attendance record set on the front page.


Beddor, Steward, and other organizers drove the officials around downtown Spokane in bright orange and yellow Hummers provided by George Gee Pontiac/GMC/Hummer emblazoned with the same logo that appeared on the wine bottles. They made small talk with the officials about where they went to school, which they also had researched beforehand, Beddor says.


A multimedia presentation gave a few of the officials a laugh when it began with local radio disc jockey Dave Sposito, impersonating Tom Brokaw, reporting the officials visit to Spokane and a few facts about each of them, some true and some humorously false.


The presentation made Larry Kriwanek, U.S. Figure Skatings events advisory board chairman, crack a smile, Beddor says. That was a good sign, she says. Beddor and Steward especially tried to put Spokanes best foot forward for Kriwanek, who visited here in late January after U.S. Figure Skating had narrowed its choice down to Spokane and Boston, Beddor says.


The couple drove Kriwanek to the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena from the Davenport to show how quickly participants would be able to get around, with the arena serving as the main event venue and the Davenport as the headquarters hotel. The 10-minute trip down Washington Street impressed him, Beddor says.


He told us, I would comment on how little congestion you have here, but I cant even use the word congestion, she says.


Beddor and Steward topped off the officials visits by offering them a box of Washington apples to give them a little food for thought as they traveled back to U.S. Figure Skating headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo.


When U.S. Figure Skating announced last month that Spokane had won the bid, Beddor says she knew that all the details made a difference in the selection.


If all the elements hadnt worked out, theres no way we would have won the bid, she says.


Skate group happy with choice


Bob Dunlop, U.S. Figure Skatings senior director of sport resources and member of the championship selection committee, says that the organizations decision to choose Spokane over the other two finalists came down to the total package each city presented.


Spokanes previous experience hosting Skate America helped tip the scales considerably, Dunlop says. Star USA and three figure-skating clubs here proved they could run an event successfully when Skate America broke its attendance record in Spokane, he says.


We feel very confident we made a smart choice in Spokane, he says.


Dunlop says that though Boston appeared to be the front-runner, U.S. Figure Skating made a conscious decision to pick a smaller city such as Spokane for the 2007 championships, which fall the year after the Winter Olympics. The championships are more likely to sell out at a smaller venue in a post-Olympic year, so Spokanes 10,500-seat arena is the perfect size, he says.


Spokane is the smallest city U.S. Figure Skating has chosen to host the championships in at least the last 10 years, Dunlop says.


First-reported ticket sales for the 2007 championships in Spokane, which started March 15, have set an event record, Dunlop says. The strong start was better than what U.S. Figure Skating officials expected, he says.


Projected economic impact


John Brewer, president of the Spokane Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau, says that with event tickets selling at a record-setting pace, hes optimistic Spokane will break attendance records. Also, while economic-impact numbers are rough, the event appears to be well worth landing, he says.


The CVB is expecting 100,000 spectators, 1,500 participants, including athletes, coaches, and judges, and 300 media representatives to attend the championships, Brewer says. The DoubleTree Hotel Spokane City Center will serve as the athletes hotel, and the Red Lion Hotel at the Park will serve as the media and tour-group hotel, he says.


Since U.S. Figure Skating requires a minimum of 8,500 hotel rooms over the course of the eight-day competition, and the rooms likely will cost an average of $100 a night, visitors could spend upwards of $850,000 just for lodging, he says.


Other breakdowns for economic impact are difficult to calculate since Spokane hasnt hosted the event before, Brewer says. However, the CVB can estimate what will be spent in different sectors, using the $30 million total economic figure, based on formulas developed from past event calculations.


Through that approach, the CVB estimates visitors will spend the most money in the restaurant and retail sectors, about $8.1 million and $5.1 million, respectively, Brewer says. It also projects that visitors will spend about $5.6 million on transportation, $4.5 million on recreational activities, and $1.8 million at grocery stores, he says.


Steward, of Star USA, says that those who come for the skating championships typically are affluent people who shop at high-end stores. The group, including athletes, coaches, figure-skating officials, and fans, also loves fine dining and wines, and will have time to see the sights here during breaks in the championships, Steward says.


I cant think of an event thats better as far as the amount of dollars that will be spent within the community, he says.


Most of the spectators likely will come from outside Spokane, Steward says. Nearly 60 percent of the Skate America ticket buyers two years ago came from a ZIP code area at least 200 miles away from Spokane, he says.


Skate Americas draw from regions outside Spokane may have been due partly to Star USAs marketing efforts, which included an agreement with United Airlines to show a video advertisement for the event on all flights in the U.S. for two months, he says. Star USA will make a similar video for the skating championships, he says.


Rich Hadley, president and CEO of the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce, says the chamber already has included information about the skating championships in its marketing materials.


This demonstrates to people who dont know Spokane all that well that we can get things done, he says. Its complementary to the way we want this community to be viewed.


The value of Spokane hosting the skating championships cant be measured by the estimated $30 million in economic impact alone because of the added benefits it will bring through television coverage and help with future marketing efforts, Hadley says. Also, visitors will pay for rental vehicles, laundry services, flowers for athletes, and other items that will add to the overall economic impact, he says.


Aside from visitor revenue, landing the championships has caused another positive effect on Spokane, Hadley says.


Its pretty good for our ego to beat Boston, he says.


The big picture


Though attention to detail helped Star USA land the championships, it took more than a few souvenirs to convince U.S. Figure Skating officials to choose Spokane.


The biggest challenge for Star USA came at the outset of its endeavor to land the championships here, which started in October 2002 after Skate America was held here, Beddor says.


Star USA had to raise $300,000 to pay for Spokane to submit its bid for the skating championships. Before trying to raise that money, Beddor and Steward asked Walt Worthy, owner of the Davenport Hotel, to offer the hotel as headquarters for the event, as he had for the Skate America competition. He agreed and offered more than $150,000 in in-kind contributions to sponsor the event.


Beddor says Worthys contribution helped boost her confidence.


Up to that point, we thought, Theres no way we can go after thisits too big for Spokane, she says. Then we thought, At least now we can consider getting bid contributors.


Contributions from the city of Spokane, Spokane County, and local organizations helped Star USA raise the required bid fee, Beddor says.


After the three finalists were announced last September, Star USA had to demonstrate that Spokane was more qualified than Boston or Hershey, Beddor says.


In the case of Boston, that seemed impossible, especially since the last several host cities were large metropolises, Beddor says. Plus, when Boston hosted the championships in 2001, it set the attendance record for the event, she says.


Beddor and Steward, who spent much of their time thinking of ways to set Spokane apart from Boston, received a leg up when Washington Trust Bank agreed to provide more than $150,000 for the event and serve as the local representing sponsor, Beddor says. U.S. Figure Skating demands that the championship host city have a local representing sponsor, but doesnt require a city to have such a sponsor before the bid is awarded, she says.


That was well above and beyond what we were expected to have committed prior to winning the bid, she says.


Jack Heath, president and chief operating officer of Washington Trust, said recently that the bank agreed to contribute $150,000 because it thought it was the right thing to do. The skating championships, which get better TV ratings than the National Basketball Association All Star Game and the car race Daytona 500, and will boost Spokanes economy during January, when the economy is slow here for some businesses, he says.


Brewer says other factors, such as the convention-center expansion and the citys downtown core, helped highlight Spokane as a desirable place to host major events. The 2007 skating championships will be the first event held at the expanded convention center, which will be the secondary venue for the event, he says.


Brewer says Star USA and other promoters emphasized that Spokane draws from a large region of people who will drive hundreds of miles to attend big events.


The first point of sale was explaining to them were not just a county of 400,000 or a city of 200,000, but a region that draws from about 2 million people, he says.


Kevin Twohig, general manager of the Spokane arena, says Spokane events are marketed to central Washington, eastern Oregon, western Montana, and southern British Columbia, Canada. Unlike Boston and other large cities, Spokane doesnt have major sports franchises that compete for audiences, so events held here often sell out, he says.


In a market like Spokane, a major event is just that, he says. It dominates the media and the community.


Spokane also has maintained a solid track record for filling seats, Twohig says. In addition to annual high-attendance events, such as the State B High School Basketball Championships, Spokane has set attendance records for the Junior Hockey Memorial Cup at 75,000 participants, Skate America at more than 28,600 participants, and the NCAA Womens Volleyball Final Four Championships at 22,000 participants, he says.


Steward says Star USA and other organizers want Spokane to shatter the skating championships attendance record, currently held by Boston, which they recognize will take work.


We know its not a sprintits a marathon, he says.