Downtown St. Paul is coming to life as the Minnesota Wild look to make a deep postseason run in the coming weeks.
Tuesday marks the final regular season home game for the Wild who host the Winnipeg Jets. Despite having just eight home games in March and April combined, the St. Paul Downtown Alliance says there's a renewed energy to the area in recent weeks.
"When the Wild are winning, it just puts a spring in everybody's step. It lifts everybody's spirits," said St. Paul Downtown Alliance President Joe Spencer. "People think about St. Paul as being the state capital. I think more critically, we are the capital of the state of hockey. It shows across downtown St. Paul when the Wild are winning and everybody gets excited about the playoff run."
According to Spencer, the months of March and April are typically strong for St. Paul businesses due to concerts, the boys high school state hockey tournament, and Wild games which bring significant revenue outside of the Xcel Energy Center.
"Research shows that every person that attends a game spends on average about $32 in addition the price of the ticket. That's spending that happens outside the arena," Spencer said. "When you add that up times almost 20,000 fans and coming back again and again, that means we've got successful bars and restaurants, that means we have lively sidewalks and streets, and it means that downtown St. Paul is an exciting place to be."
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As is the case for downtowns nationwide, Spencer says that daytime traffic remains the busiest on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday due to work-from-home situations adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Evening traffic remains strong throughout the week.
"We're really getting great numbers from people going to see theater, hockey, or baseball here starting soon. That's something that maybe hasn't historically been true of St. Paul where we have such strength in our evenings and weekends, but that's what we're really seeing here over the last year or so."
According to Spencer, employers are telling him they are eager to have employees back in the office more in the coming future which will lead to better daytime traffic.
"Over the long term, I think one of the most key things for our downtown and frankly downtowns everywhere, is to see that residential population increase," added Spencer. "We've had really rapid growth and the downtown population has doubled in the last 10 years and we're hoping to see that continue. Adding more people here more hours of the day I think is going to be kind of be the key. We've got the wind in our sails from the demographic point of view. We're seeing more people wanting to move into downtown living."
The Wild clinched a berth in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs earlier this month for the 13th time in franchise history. Winnipeg could secure a spot in the playoffs Tuesday night against the Wild. They need to record a single point in the contest to secure the final wildcard spot in the Western Conference.