Volleyball players from across the country converged on the R.I. Convention Center last April for a weekendlong tournament that brought in 170 teams and more than 2,000 people.
The Rhode Island Rumble was such a success that Joseph Volleyball Camps, partnering with the New England Regional Volleyball Association, agreed to come back to Providence five more times this year, starting with two tournaments this month, on April 27-28.
“We added 100 more teams, and it’s already sold out,” said AJ Joseph, president of Joseph Volleyball Camps.
The group of mainly teenage volleyball players traveled to Providence for the first time last year and plans to keep coming back.
“This is a for-certain annual thing for us,” said Joseph, who lives in Florida.
Although the convention center’s lineup for fiscal 2019 dips slightly from last year, overall tax income from large events is expected to exceed 2018.
“We’re projecting that we’re going to come out another $1.8 million over last year,” said Thomas Riel, vice president of sales and service for the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau.
The convention center is set to host 256 events for fiscal 2019, according to John McGinn, senior director of the R.I. Convention Center.
That number includes 26 trade shows and conventions.
‘We wanted to provide the wow factor, without the wow price.’
GRETCHEN SHAW, National Coalition on Domestic Violence deputy director
While the largest is Rhode Island Comic Con, which attracts 30,000 people, other conventions, including Evolution 2019, Homebrew Con and Gordon Food Service 2019, will bring in thousands more from out of state.
Last fiscal year, a total of 479 events were held under the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority umbrella, with 270 bookings at the convention center, 125 at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center and 84 at The Vets.
The convention center generated 69% of $73.6 million in direct spending from meetings, conventions and sports in 2018, according to numbers tallied by the PWCVB.
Those events earned $5.8 million in state sales tax, along with more than $950,000 in local tax.
Bookings for 2020 are still incomplete, but current estimates show $43.3 million in direct spending, with 125,300 attendees at various events.
With new construction about to swell the number of hotel rooms within a mile of the convention center to about 3,000, economic benefits from upcoming events will be widespread.
More than 95,600 rooms were filled last year as a result of conventions, and so far, with 2019’s still-incomplete schedule, 92,700 rooms have been reserved. Groups that have already committed to coming to Providence in 2020 have booked 63,000 rooms, said Kristen Adamo, vice president of marketing and communications at the PWCVB.
“This year will be better than 2018, and we’d assume without having it all nailed down that we think 2020 will be better than 2019,” said James McCarvill, executive director of the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority. “But 2017 was better than any of these years.”
He attributed the success of 2017 to a schedule that seemed to fall into place.
Riel agreed.
“We had 74.3% in hotel occupancy [in the Providence area] in 2017. That was sort of our record-breaker year for meetings, conventions and sporting events,” he said.
While numbers for this year and the next are solid, 2021’s outlook is even brighter.
“We are at 170% of our booking pace [for hotel rooms] for that year,” said Adamo.
She attributes increasing business in large part to growth in Providence, its unique character and amenities such as easy parking and access to travel hubs.
Affordability was the main factor that led the National Coalition on Domestic Violence to choose Providence over Boston for its annual conference last year.
“Providence was able to offer the price point that we thought would be more palatable to the people who were going to attend the conference,” said Gretchen Shaw, deputy director of the Denver-based coalition.
Voices Rising, the national conference on domestic violence, was attended by about 650 people in late September 2018.
“Even though Providence was a little outside the norm … it turned out to be what we thought was a great fit for our group,” Shaw said. “We wanted to provide the wow factor, without the wow price. … Providence [is] just a delightful city.”
Sports events continue to mean big business for the convention center and venues across the state.
Events are typically booked through the Rhode Island Sports Commission, a separate division of the PWCVB.
“Sports are about 40% of the total group contribution,” Riel said. “Often sporting events will require several fields or ice rinks, they tend to have far-reaching needs. They’ll use the whole state sometimes.”
In January, high school cheerleading championships drew more than 10,000 to Providence, while NCAA ice hockey and cheerleading this spring and USA gymnastics in August are projected to bring in at least 15,000 more fans.
The convention center’s downtown location works well for both players and fans, Joseph said.
“We really love the setting, for us the number of hotel rooms compared to the number of courts we could fit in the convention center was great,” he said. “We love that the restaurants are open late, and that it’s close to the mall. It’s a natural fit for us.”
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Graham@PBN.com.