Winter in St. Paul means falling temperatures and rising scaffolding: The city will host a Red Bull Crashed Ice event for the fourth straight year in January.
And this time, female skaters will get their own competition.
More than 120,000 people crammed around the sloping ice course on Cathedral Hill in February to catch a glimpse of the racers as they navigated the 1,410-foot course. They’ll be able to do it again Jan. 22-24, according to a news release from Red Bull.
“The bar owners and local restaurants call this the second St. Patrick’s Day for them,” said St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman. “It’s huge. Even last year when we had the terrible weather, there were a lot of people that came out for it.”
Last winter, the challenging downhill course drew at least seven female skaters, who braved the jumps and hairpin turns and had their results tallied against the male competitors. This year, 16 female racers will compete directly against each other.
Estimates of how much spending the Crashed Ice races generate for St. Paul businesses vary, but a comparison of January 2012 and January 2011 revenue from the city’s half-cent sales tax showed a $100,000 difference.
That’s an indication that in its first year, Red Bull helped draw up to $20 million in additional spending compared with the year before, though other events in January likely contributed to the boost. The event will span three days of qualifiers and international and U.S. races, climaxing in the Jan. 24 finals.
“We have looked at other cities who’ve hosted this event, which have done some specific economic analysis,” said Jake Spano, the mayor’s marketing director.
After trading notes with Visit St. Paul, the city’s visitors bureau, the mayor’s office believes that the event likely generates between $10 million and $15 million for area businesses, from hotels to retailers, and not just downtown.
“Businesses up on Selby, Summit, Grand, Midway area … see a healthy bump from patrons spending time at their establishments, then heading to the event site itself either by foot or by shuttles,” Spano said.
Red Bull has not made a permanent commitment to bringing Crashed Ice to St. Paul every winter, and countries such as Russia, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands have dropped in and out of the host country lineup. The first event was held in Stockholm in 2001.
Nevertheless, “I’m told by Red Bull that our event is larger in attendance than any of the other stops on the tour,” Spano said.
For the 2015 season, two longstanding favorite locations, St. Paul and Helsinki, will be joined by two newcomers: Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Edmonton, Alberta. The four-race season will start in St. Paul.
“We make it fun and easy for them,” Coleman said. “The reality is, this is one of the biggest events that Red Bull puts on across the globe. We love having them here, and I think they love being here.”
Red Bull’s return to the Saintly City four years running has raised speculation that the company could help sponsor a permanent outdoor training facility in Minnesota. To train, some athletes build small ramps in their own back yards in the winter and rent time at indoor bicycle parks when the ice melts. Neither setup truly approximates the lengthy downhill track of an actual Crashed Ice course.
“They talk about training facilities potentially in the region … or one of the local ski hills,” Coleman said.
Two Minnesota racers, Reed Whiting and Cameron Naasz, this year opened an ice cross downhill training course in Mont Du Lac, Wis., south of Duluth.
Huge crowds have helped boost the popularity of ice cross downhill– two Minnesota skaters made St. Paul’s final round in February. The “extreme” sport was invented as a marketing strategy by Red Bull to promote its nonalcoholic energy drink.
Nevertheless, if Red Bull Crashed Ice returns in 2018, when Super Bowl LII is scheduled to touch down in Minneapolis, St. Paul officials hope the skating competition will help lure regional and out-of-state visitors who might otherwise spend their tourism dollars across the river.
“Certainly, St. Paul will play a role in the Super Bowl, whether it’s an ice palace or Crashed Ice,” Coleman said.
An ice palace? Is that oft-mentioned possibility now definitely a go?
“No,” said the mayor, “but I would like to see one.”
CRASHED ICE RETURNS
When: Jan. 22-24, 2015
Who goes: The St. Paul races have been Red Bull’s most popular, attracting about 120,000 people.
What’s new: Women will have their own division for racing; 16 will compete this year.
Copyright 2014 Pioneer Press.