RAGBRAI concert ticket sales fall short, final tally still out

CEDAR RAPIDS - Far fewer tickets were sold for Thurday night's "Counting Crows" concert than organizers had hoped and the financial results for last week's RAGBRAI overnight stop in the community will not be known until later this week.

"We probably did about $75,000 in tickets," said Marilee Fowler, president and CEO of the Cedar Rapids Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. "We had some other things that were very successful like beverage consumption and retail sales. We also were still picking up sponsorships the day before the events."

The "Party on the Island" organizing committee had hoped to sell 8,000 tickets at $25 apiece for $200,000 in revenue.

"I would estimate that we had a crowd of about 20,000 on Thursday evening who showed up and consumed a lot of food and drink," Fowler said. "We still have some major expenses out there, so we really don't know where we are financially. We hopefully will have an answer later this week."

The total budget for the overnight RAGBRAI stay by some 20,000 bicyclists was about $400,000, not counting in-kind contributions by businesses and local governments. Sandi Fowler, assistant to City Manager Jeff Pomeranz, said the largest-single expense was an estimated $250,000 for the Counting Crows concert.

The city provided $60,000 in seed money from hotel/motel tax revenue. Fowler said the first check that will be cut will be repayment of that seed money.

Businesses looking for a sales lift from RAGBRAI reported mixed results.

"We were expecting a tidal wave , given the high heat and weather and the fact that our store was situated in the middle of the three camps for the main groups of riders," said Mike Russell, manager of store operations at Hy-Vee, 4825 Johnson Ave. NW.

"It wasn't as significant as we had hoped, but it was a definite increase. We were overly ready in terms of beverages and ice."

Thursday evening was "pretty good," according to Mark Owen, assistant manager of Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches, 411 Third St. SE.

"We probably had one of our best days since we've been open," Owen said. "We really didn't get anything from the Friday morning crowd. We saw a lot of them ride by, but they didn't come in."

It was a different story for Lou Thompson, owner of Village Meat Market & Cafe, 92 16th Ave. SW

in Czech Village.

"Friday morning was fantastic, really awesome," Thompson said. "The riders that came through were really wonderful, not a jerk in the bunch. We had prepared a lot of food and made a ton of coffee.

"They really patronized everybody and that was great. We probably won't see that many people in the village for a long time."

RAGBRAI riders and local residents kept Jersey's Pub & Grub at 200 First Ave. NE hopping from Thursday night into the wee hours of Friday morning.

"We had wall-to-wall people for eight hours. It was ridiculous," said Jersey's Manager Stu Kee. "We definitely benefited from keeping our kitchen open longer.

"We shut the kitchen down for about an hour just to get a turnover. Then we opened it back up and served breakfast until 4 a.m.

"It was pretty insane, but it was a lot of fun."

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