DENVER — As the puck drops on a new NHL season, the Colorado Avalanche are seeking to bring the Stanley Cup back to Denver for another year.
9Wants to Know compiled the cost of the Avalanche's June championship parade through numerous open records requests to Denver agencies and organizations.
9Wants to Know found that approximately 82% of the $546,050.22 spent on the event came from donors, not taxpayers.
Approximately $96,050.22 in tax dollars was spent on the championship parade back in June.
Steve Sander, president of Sander Marketing and organizer of the event, said at least $450,000 of private funding went to the event. He said Kroenke Sports contributed between $300,000 and $325,000. An additional $150,000 came from the coalition of VISIT DENVER, the Denver Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Denver Partnership.
“The dollars that were raised paid for event production, parade production, barricades, security, audiovisual, technology and staging, etc,” said Kate Barton, spokesperson for the Downtown Denver Partnership.
VISIT DENVER spokesperson Jesse Davis confirmed the organization’s $100,000 contribution. Of that, 90% comes from taxes paid when people stay in hotels in the City and County of Denver. That amount is not included in the $96,050.22 in tax dollars spent on the event.
Declan Bolger, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, wrote in a text that he did not have a firm donation amount available but directed questions to Sander.
Avalanche's Stanley Cup rally
The Avalanche did not have to pay for some of the costs involved with the parade and rally. At least $7,031.25 in goods and services were waived by the City and County of Denver.
Jill Lis, spokesperson for Denver’s Office of Special Events, said the city provided space and access for the event.
“The City and County of Denver (CCD) did not pay out any hard costs for the Avalanche Parade and Rally,” Lis wrote in an email. “The CCD contributed staff time and resources – resources defined and not charging permit fees related to road closures, reserving parking meters and the use of Civic Center Park.”
Cyndi Karvaski, spokesperson for Denver Parks and Recreation, said that the department waived the $7,031.25 permit fee needed in order for the team to use the park.
Lis wrote in a text that CCD does not know the cost of closing roads and reserving parking meters.
“Those costs were not calculated,” she said. “We simply closed the roads and bagged the meters needed. Since we weren’t charging anyone for them, we did not calculate what they would have cost.”
Thousands of dollars in event costs normally paid by CCD were picked up by the coalition of private donors, according to Sander. That is a total of $76,231.70. and includes:
$70,845.70 for barricades
$4,025 for port-a-potties
$1,361 for sign language interpreters
The largest cost to taxpayers was paying CCD employees to be at the parade.
According to Denver Department of Finance data obtained through a records request, at least $96,050.22 went to the payroll of 210 city employees working the event as a part of, or in addition to, their responsibilities.
Of those, 151 were eligible for overtime, but it’s unclear how many were paid more.
The Denver parks department accounted for 46% of the payroll spending, with $43,702.81.
Courtney Meihls, spokesperson for Denver’s Department of Finance, also said there could be other city and county employees who were there but did not account for their time by using a code set aside to account for time spent on the Avalanche parade.
“There may be other people who attended the event or worked the event in their official capacity who did not use the timecode, but we don’t have a record of who they are, because they didn’t use the timecode,” Meihls said.
A spokesperson for the Downtown Denver Partnership said they did not have estimates on the economic benefit of the parade to businesses downtown. The Denver Business Journal has stated that similar-sized cities had an economic boon of millions of dollars because of the Stanley Cup Final. Officials told the Denver Post an estimated 500,000 people attended the parade and rally.
Fire departments involved in the parade had a minimal cost
Fire trucks from across Colorado were prominently displayed during the event and used as parade floats. 9Wants to Know reached out to a handful of the departments and they said the cost was minimal.
Greg Pixley, a captain with Denver Fire, said 41 firefighters attended the parade and were working anyway, so no extra costs were incurred. He said they were “proud to represent DFD and help celebrate.”
Rich Martin, deputy chief for the Castle Rock Fire and Rescue Department Operations Division, wrote in an email that six off-duty members of his department also volunteered to go. He wrote that it cost about $150 in fuel to send two trucks.
Reach investigative reporter Zack Newman through his phone at 303-548-9044. You can also call or text securely on Signal through that same number. Email: zack.newman@9news.com. Call or text is preferred over email.
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