Published April 2004

Events Center buoyed
by boat-show success

The Northwest Marine Trade Association’s highly successful, first-class Everett Boat Show in the new Everett Events Center last month was yet another example of the promise of the center’s potential being fulfilled.

It was promoted by supporters as a facility that would give people good reasons to look to Everett for sports events, entertainment, conferences and trade shows. So far, the center has racked up an impressive roster of successes: the Silvertips expansion team set records in the Western Hockey League for first-year teams, winning the league title and earning playoff rights; Disney On Ice and the Harlem Globetrotters were so popular they’re both coming back next year; business and charity groups have filled the conference facilities; and now the boat show has shown what the center can do for exhibitors.

Seeing the hockey arena and the public ice sheet turned into display space for 238 boats, and the second-floor conference facilities filled with trade booths for boating accessories, proved how smoothly all of the center’s specialty spaces can be converted for major display shows.

During the five-day event, the trade group’s estimate of 8,000 to 10,000 visitors proved right on target, with 8,962 paid guests showing up and buying 100 of the display boats. John Thorburn, a spokesman for the trade group, called the event “a big success for a first-year show.”

More than 100 of the trade association’s 850 members were exhibitors at the Everett event, which included many Snohomish County firms, such as Camano Marine, Cascade Crags, Olympic Boat Centers, Boat Country, Harbor Marine Distributors, Pacific Power Batteries, the Port of Everett, Superior Marine Service, Boaters World Marine Center and Northwest Sport Fish. Also, Performance Nissan in south Everett was a sponsor of the event, a reminder that 75 percent of boats sold in the state each year are trailer-friendly.

Michael Campbell, president of the NMTA, began planning for the event three years ago, from the moment the Everett Events Center was announced. With the success of this year’s event, NMTA will be back next year, too, adding Everett to its annual successes with the Seattle Boat Show at the Seahawks Stadium and Exhibition Hall and the summer show at Shilshole Bay Marina.

Campbell knew the event would pay off. Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom counties have the highest concentration of boaters in the state, averaging one boat for every nine people, with a 1-to-12 ratio in Snohomish County, compared to one boat for every 17 people in King County. Also, visitors to the NMTA’s Seattle boat shows had been asking for one in Everett.

The event not only brought new money into Everett from businesses and visitors from outside the county, as well as from local enterprises and residents, it also brought new prestige to the city, adding an important new event to the reasons people are coming back into downtown Everett.

Congratulations are in order for the Everett Public Facilities District that built the center and the Everett Events Center staff for doing a great job of fulfilling the center’s potential. This year’s successes should make booking events for the second year much easier and provide the city with even more top-notch events.

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