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Sun Life Frozen Fenway 2012 Generates Close to $30 Million in Visitor Spending for the City of Boston and the Region

With over 80,000 tickets sold for the various high school and college hockey games, and more than 10,000 attendees at the free hockey and public skating events, the total spending impact for The City of Boston and the region is estimated at $28.8 million, according to the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau.

"The Sun Life Frozen Fenway games and events helped provide our Boston economy with a good start in 2012," said Mayor Thomas M. Menino. "We thank Fenway Sports Management and the Red Sox for organizing such a successful event that not only provided a fun winter activity for families from Boston and around New England, but also helped generate millions for our area businesses."

Of the total $28.8 million generated for Boston's visitor industry, $17.9 million came from direct spending, and another $10.9 from indirect spending. The majority of the total spending – roughly 83 percent – came from the two, main weekend games on January 7 and 14, matching four New England state college hockey teams and four long-time Boston rivals on both the high school and collegiate level.

"An event like the Sun Life Frozen Fenway games has a huge impact on our visitor industry, helping drive business during a time that is generally slow for travel and tourism in Boston," said Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau President/CEO Pat Moscaritolo. "The direct spending from fans in our area restaurants, hotels and retail shops alone is significant, but we also saw a huge boost from indirect spending on ancillary services and staff needed to help support the visitor demand during this time."

In addition to the public, ticketed events held during Sun Life Frozen Fenway, there were many other games and skating opportunities that took place at the ballpark as a result of donated ice time from FSM, the Red Sox and The City of Boston. In fact, out of the more than 140 total hours of ice time over 16 days, about a quarter of that time was either donated to help raise money for various not-for-profit groups, or donated to local organizations like youth hockey teams with USA Hockey. The bulk of the donated time - over 18 hours - was devoted to the two Community Skating Days for kids and families in Boston to have an opportunity to skate on the ice for free.

"We did our best to accommodate as many different organizations and groups as possible during the time the ice was on the field at Fenway Park and believe we found a good balance between public, private and charitable events during those 16 days," said Red Sox COO and Fenway Sports Management President Sam Kennedy. "With eight public and private high school games, six men and women's college hockey games, and a number of other skating opportunities over 16 days, we saw over 90,000 hockey and skating fans come through the ballpark to enjoy a game or skate during our two, free Community Skating Days. We are pleased with the success of the event, and once again thank Mayor Menino for his support in making this event a reality."

Boston Red Sox
Zineb Curran, 617-226-6115
zcurran@redsox.com
or
Elevate Communications
Keith Gainsboro, 857-234-1481
Kgainsboro@elevatecom.com