Rochester attracts state volleyball tournament
At the end of the game, the score was 1 for the Mayo Civic Center, 0 for the Target Center of Minneapolis and 0 for the Excel Energy Center in St. Paul.
That's the result of competition for the Minnesota high school volleyball tournaments for the next five years. The Minnesota State High School League chose the Rochester site after reviewing the three bids.
The Target Center would have charged the league $73,000 a year and the Excel Energy Center would have charged $42,000.
The Rochester Convention and Visitors Bureau offered to stage the tournaments without charge.
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; Brenda Riggott, executive director of the bureau, said the purpose was to attract the estimated $300,000 in visitor spending that the volleyball tournament is expected to produce each year. Howard Voigt, information director for the high school league, said choosing the Rochester site would save the organization more than $250,000.
Rochester has had a long and successful record of hosting the holiday basketball and hockey tournaments as well as sectional wrestling tournaments. The volleyball competition each year will be for the state championship.
The tournament is held in November and attracts 24 teams in three classes. The civic center has a seating capacity of 4,500 for volleyball games.
The convention bureau used the right strategy in beating out the two larger and better-known sports facilities. Spending for hotels, restaurants and other services by volleyball fans will produce substantial tax revenues for the city -- and Rochester sports fans will have something else to watch in the cold month of November.
