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By Brian Fitzgerald
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James
Stamas |
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It’s being built, but will they come? Approval for the $800 million
Boston Convention and Exposition Center came from the state legislature
in 1997, long before the post–September 11, 2001, dip in tourism
and a nationwide recession. But bookings for the facility have been coming
in more slowly than initially expected.
Serious concerns about the success of the center -- which was intended
to make the Hub a hub for the lucrative convention market -- led the
Massachusetts Lodging Association (MLA) to form a group last year to
study what it would take to effectively market Boston’s new convention
space. The MLA chose School of Hospitality Administration Dean James
Stamas to head the group. His task was to wade into the stormy seas of
city and state politics and try to hammer out a solution that would satisfy
the several frustrated parties in the convention center conundrum.
The 17-member Stamas Commission, consisting of a cross section of tourism
professionals, built on the marketing ideas of the Massachusetts Convention
Center Authority (MCCA), which will run the new 570,000-square-foot building
under construction on the South Boston waterfront, and made further recommendations
on the best way to pursue an aggressive sales effort for the embattled
facility.
“
Last spring there was a lot of finger-pointing going on in the city because
of the lack of bookings,” says Stamas. As a result of its own study,
the MCCA was considering a move to reduce its $3.7 million marketing
contract with the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau (GBCVB)
to just $700,000, and shift $3 million to a new nonprofit marketing and
sales group. “The MLA asked me if I would chair a group that represented
the tourism industry to look at the MCCA proposal and see what we thought
of it,” Stamas says. “After a number of meetings, we arrived
at some conclusions, and we documented them.”
The Stamas Commission met with leaders of the two entities at odds and
came up with a transitional plan for the selling and marketing of the
new facility. Stamas says that the duties will initially be the responsibility
of the MCCA, and would potentially later be under the GBCVB.
“
Fortunately, no separate large organization was created -- no third board,” says
Stamas. “We didn’t feel that another bureaucracy was necessary.” He
says that adjustments have been made in the bureau’s executive
committee, however, and a new marketing chief, trade show veteran Milt
Herbert, was hired. “Mr. Herbert is now in charge of convention
sales, and he reports to MCCA director James Rooney, but he still has
a strong tie with the bureau,” says Stamas. Herbert recently unveiled
to the convention industry trade press an ad campaign entitled Advantage
Boston.
The MLA showed its appreciation for Stamas’ work by nominating
him for its Most Valuable Volunteer Award. “We think Jim deserves
the national award because of his leadership, the fact that his commission
came up with excellent recommendations, and the fact that he worked with
us to broker a compromise between the MCCA and the Greater Boston Convention
and Visitors Bureau,” says Arthur Canter, MLA executive director.
Stamas was asked to chair the commission, Canter says, because he is
respected in the hospitality industry. “Plus, because he isn’t
directly involved in the issue, he has nothing to gain or lose by the
group’s findings,” he says. “We thought he’d
be the most credible person to head this body.”
Stamas accepted the award in September, “even though I’m
not normally into these personal recognition distinctions,” he
says. “I’m proud of the work we did. We thought that some
changes were necessary to sell the convention center, but that there
was no need to throw hand grenades. I think we successfully got that
message across.”
But tough challenges for the new convention center, scheduled to open
in July, are far from over, according to Stamas: only a handful of bookings
have trickled in, partly because of a lack of hotel rooms in the South
Boston waterfront area. And last summer, organizers of the large MacWorld
technology convention, which has held its annual show in New York since
1998, publicly voiced second thoughts about being the new convention
center’s first show. MacWorld had cited the inadequate number of
hotel rooms in the city as one of its reasons for abandoning Boston after
13 straight years and moving to the Big Apple 5 years ago. Boston’s
loss because of this has been estimated at 300,000 visitors and $360
million in revenue.
Fortunately for the local hospitality industry and other businesses,
MacWorld later announced that it would return to Boston in 2004. And
in September, the city of Boston initiated a $40 million loan fund to
jump-start large-scale hotel projects. “There is no doubt that
hotels are needed in the area,” Stamas says. “We are way
behind in building enough of them, and that has hindered marketing efforts.
Boston needs more hotel rooms in general.”
Starwood Hotels and Resorts and local developers have committed $80 million
to build the project’s headquarters hotel, but the facility will
not be finished until spring 2006, almost two years after the convention
center is slated to open. This presents a problem, Stamas and Canter
say, pointing out that conventioneers want to stay in hotels that are
either within walking distance or a short shuttle bus ride to the event
they are attending. But a guest staying in a Back Bay hotel today would
have to take the Green Line to the Red Line to the Silver Line to the
South Boston Seaport District. Also, planners fear traffic tie-ups near
the convention center when it is in use. “The lack of infrastructure
is another problem that needs to be addressed,” says Canter.
Stamas agrees. “The transportation issues have to be dealt with,
and some hotels have to be built near the convention center,” he
says. “If the conventions are in South Boston and the hotels are
all in Back Bay, there is no incentive to book there.”
For the moment, however, Stamas has helped the convention center overcome
a major hurdle in its often-troubled journey -- there had even been proposed
legislation to halt work on the project in midconstruction. “The
Stamas Commission made some great recommendations and met privately with
the MCCA and the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau, and came
up with some compromises and a new marketing and sales model,” says
Canter. “Jim Stamas deserves a lot of credit.”
17
October 2003
Boston University
Office of University Relations