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MARSHALL -- A lot of events were canceled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the Marshall Convention and Visitor's Bureau is looking toward the new year with optimism.
The CVB is looking to strengthen relationships with three key community assets as it plans for 2021, according to its director.
In her presentation to the Marshall City Council on Tuesday, Cassi Weiss identified sports associations, event organizers and Southwest Minnesota State University as vital relationships for Marshall.
"We want to create a stronger relationship with our sports associations and our local event organizers, especially after the year of 2020 where almost every event had to be canceled or looked at in a new way," Weiss said. "We want to make sure those events are coming back to the community and are able to happen again. We would like to get the word out to our local community about our tourism grants program and hopefully those dollars can be used to get their events started again."
Weiss added they also want to strengthen their relationship with Southwest Minnesota State University, including providing visitor guides for dorms and campus tours.
"We also want to strengthen our relationship with SMSU as well; providing the dorms with visitor guides and working with the admissions office on providing them materials when people are coming to tour as well as doing some Marshall training to their ambassadors that give the tours," Weiss said.
The MARSH and Red Baron Arena
The MARSH did have some events happen during 2020 such as a limited high school fall sports season, trap shooting tournaments at Shooter's Sporting Clays and youth baseball tournaments over the summer. However, Weiss said the MARSH had several events get canceled or postponed.
High school spring activities, a high school marching band competition and the Marshall United Soccer Association season were among the cancellations. The high school season for fall activities experienced shortened seasons and SMSU athletics were postponed until Jan. 1.
At the Red Baron Arena and Expo, Weiss said the CVB was able to host the Bantam Regional Tournament as well as other hockey tournaments from January to March. After reopening in July with a COVID plan in place, Weiss added they were able to see events such as the Craft & Vendor Show occur and book more ice time at the arena. During the shutdown, time at the arena. Other cancellation events at the Red Baron Arena included nine events on the expo floor, six Fairbanks Ice Dogs games, two Marshall Amateur Hockey Association tournaments and more than 20 games along with five high school hockey games and a tournament get canceled or delayed.
One of the larger projects Weiss and Visit Marshall, along with several others, worked on was the temporary relocation of the Fairbanks Ice Dogs, a North American Hockey League team from Fairbanks, Alaska to Marshall for part of their season.
"We started this partnership with the NAHL team out of Fairbanks, Alaska in about June. It started with a random email which bloomed into something a little bit more," Weiss said. "They were looking for a home in Minnesota due to the restrictions in Alaska for travel, so we decided that we would do whatever we could to make Marshall their temporary home."
Weiss added before the shutdown, they were able to bring in an additional 30 hours of practice time and two hours of game time and that the Ice Dogs are planning to return on Dec. 26 and host 6-10 games in January and February.
Weiss also said next year they already have three new events they will be hosting at the Red Baron Arena as well as bringing back multiple events from previous years.
"Right now we have three new events we are looking forward to hosting: the Taste of Marshall, the Boat and RV show and the Fairbanks Ice Dogs season," Weiss said. "We're really excited that as of right now, five of our annual events would like to come back to the arena to host again and we also have another six weddings booked for 2021."
Some goals for the Red Baron Arena for next year will be utilizing the meeting and Vast club room for more community business meetings, working with the NAHL about hosting a potential exhibition game next season and booking more weddings.
Weiss also told the Council that the CVB will be putting more focus on digital advertising and adjusted their print marketing plan to get people in town to try tourist-related activities.
Weiss said from April to July, their lodging tax at Visit Marshall was down an average of 54% due to COVID and was down an average of 24% until December.
"We really tried to focus on some digital advertising, getting the word out to our locals to support our local community and do the tourist things that we have in town that they maybe haven't done before," Weiss said.
"We also created a new website and a blog that follows the new City of Marshall branding. And then we adjusted our print marketing plan and did a little less than we normally do, but we focused on hunting, outdoor recreation and day trips."