Saturday's championship match will produce host of winners...

By Don Shilling | February 18, 2009 at 12:04a.m.

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By Don Shilling

VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR

The outcome of Saturday’s title fight is uncertain, but Kelly Pavlik already has helped one local hotel beat back its annual case of the winter blues.

The staff at the Holiday Inn-Boardman expects the South Avenue hotel to be filled Saturday night, thanks to Pavlik’s fight against Marco Antonio Rubio.

“It’s great when we fill up during the offseason because it’s not normally a busy time,” said Mike Moliterno, hotel general manager.

It would be the second straight Saturday night to sell out, after Valentine’s Day last weekend. Business normally is slower from November through April because of the colder weather and decrease in weddings, Moliterno said.

The Holiday Inn appears to be one of the big winners from the middleweight championship bout coming to the Chevrolet Centre in Youngstown.

Area hotels, bars and restaurants will generate about $205,000 in extra revenue because of the fight, estimated Phil Moore, executive director of the Mahoning County Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The Chevrolet Centre itself is expecting $1.5 million in revenue from the fight.

Moore is estimating that about 6,000 of the 7,000 people attending the fight will be from the Mahoning Valley. He has spoken with hotels, and only the Holiday Inn is reporting substantial business from the event.

Staff at the Hampton Inn in Boardman told The Vindicator that it has booked only a few rooms to fight fans, while Residence Inn in Boardman said it isn’t aware of any business linked to the bout.

Moore said he figured that hotels are receiving about $53,000 in additional business because of the event. He based that on an estimate that 40 percent of the county’s 1,800 hotel rooms would be used by fight fans Saturday.

Moore said the Holiday Inn has the biggest share of this business because staff for the promoter, pay-per-view company and others connected to the fight are staying there.

Moliterno said the hotel normally attracts people connected to Chevrolet Centre events because it is a full-service hotel with a restaurant and lounge.

It also helps that the hotel’s sales staff aggressively pursues the business, he said. The staff works to find out who will be appearing at the venue and then promotes the hotel, he said.

“The longer we are at it, the more respect we get and the easier it becomes,” he said.

On Saturday, guests are coming from other states, such as Nevada and New York, but many are coming from closer areas.

“People from Cleveland and Pittsburgh are deciding to make a night out of it,” he said.

Moore is estimating that about half of the 7,000 people attending the fight will stop at a restaurant before or after the event and spend and average of $15 a person. That equals $52,500 in added business.

Springfield Grill, a Boardman restaurant, normally sees an increase in business when there is a downtown event and expects that to be the case for the boxing match, said Sheila Fowkes, a restaurant manager.

“I’m absolutely positive we will have a nice dinner crowd,” she said.

She added that the restaurant advertised in the fight program in the hopes of creating future business.

Moore also figures that area restaurants and bars that are showing the fight on TV will generate about $100,000 in revenue from people who don’t have tickets but want to watch the bout. He figures those places have a capacity of 4,000 and each person will spend at average of $25.

Buffalo Wild Wings on East Federal Street in downtown Youngstown is expecting so many people that it is putting up an inflatable tent outside. Music from local bands will precede the telecast, and Frank Buonavolonta, a restaurant manager, has said he expects the atmosphere to be electric.

The city also stands to receive a nice payday.

Each ticket to the Chevrolet Centre carries a 5.5 percent admission tax. Ticket sales will generate about $1 million, making the city’s share $55,000, said Eric Ryan, the center’s executive director.

Ryan said the venue expects total revenue of about $1.5 million from ticket sales, concessions and suite sales. Some tickets still remain, he said.

Kyle Miasek, city deputy finance director, said the city’s income tax also should provide revenue eventually. Anyone who makes money off the fight should pay the city’s 2.75 percent income tax on their earnings. It would be up to the accountants for the boxers, promoter and others to calculate that with their 2009 tax return, he said.

The purse for the fight includes $1 million for Pavlik and $300,000 for Rubio, which would provide the city with $35,750 in tax revenue. The boxers pay their trainers and others in their camp from their purses.

shilling@vindy.com