Mortenson had been seeking $2M at the State Capitol to retain core staff members for a new events groupbizjournals
Minnesota Sports Corp., the organization in charge of Minneapolis hosting last month's NCAA Final Four, will "dissolve at the end of June and halt efforts" to win $2M in state funding to "keep it going as a regional group," according to Rochelle Olson of the Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE. The announcement was a "reversal" of what Minneapolis Final Four Committee President & CEO Kate Mortenson had been "saying for weeks." Mortenson had "aimed to keep the Final Four operation running as a 'regional events catalyst' to produce more high-profile events for the Twin Cities." In April, Mortenson said that she was seeking $2M at the State Capitol to "retain core staff members for a new group that would work to create new events and enhance those already here." The MSC had "hired a lobbyist to pursue funding." However, once Mortenson's funding plan "became widely known, pushback came swiftly" from the area's three big convention bureaus: Meet Minneapolis, Visit St. Paul and the Bloomington Convention & Visitors Bureau. The three organizations said that they "already worked together on events ranging from sports to political conventions and trade meetings, and opposed Mortenson's plan" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 5/2).
