...and as a half to Providence

By Paul Grimaldi for Rhode Island News
PROVIDENCE — The city landed another notable event expected to profit the Rhode Island Convention Center and local hospitality venues, tourism officials will announce Wednesday.

A California-based athletics marketing company chose the city as a site for its annual Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon series, according to the Providence-Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau. Providence will be one of 16 locations to host the hybrid athletic-cultural event in 2011 and the first New England site for the event that started in 1998 in San Diego.

Convention bureau managers and event organizers will be making the official announcement Wednesday morning at an event in Waterplace Park.

Run by the Competitor Group, the events combine a two-day health fair, a road race and concurrent musical performances culminating with a post-race concert by a headline musical act.

“It’s a 13.1-mile block party,” said Dan Cruz, a spokesman for the San Diego company.

Nearly two-thirds of participants in the 2009 race series traveled from outside the race locations, staying in hotels an average of nearly three nights each.

The Providence event, a half-marathon of 13.1 miles, is expected to draw 15,000 people to the city and generate 5,000 room-nights for hotels in and around the city.

Speaking from Atlanta, Cruz said the Competitor Group chose Providence because, “as the series has expanded, we have been looking for an event in the Northeast where there’s not an established major marathon like Boston or New York.”

The event plays into a strategy advocated by tourism-marketing professionals both here and around the country: combining athletic events with cultural activities to boost visitor numbers and spending totals.

The state already hosts two such running events — the CVS Caremark Downtown 5K, which marked its 20th anniversary in 2009 with a record 10,000 entrants, and the Amica Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island Triathlon.

Hockey, lacrosse and schoolboy basketball tourneys are also among the sports-event mix.

“We’ve made a really concerted effort in the last couple of years at targeting the sporting-event market,” said Martha Sheridan, president and chief executive of the convention bureau.

The city landed its most prominent event in 2010 when the Dunkin’ Donuts Center hosted opening rounds of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

The games in March were sellouts and pumped $500,000 into just the host venues, helping the Rhode Island Convention Center and Dunkin’ Donuts Center each post a profit for the fiscal year ending June 30.

The road races use a similar game plan, using sports tourism to generate economic impact, Cruz said.

“That’s the same type of atmosphere that we’re looking to create,” Cruz said, referring to the NCAA tournament.

The musical half-marathon will bring money to the R.I. Convention Center Authority, which runs those two venues, as the health fair and event-related meetings will take place inside the convention center.

The Providence event is set for Sunday, Aug. 7. Other 2011 sites include New Orleans, Dallas and Seattle.