The NFL awarded its 2028 Draft to the Twin Cities a couple of weeks ago. Minnesota will host it in partnership with Minnesota Sports and Events (MNSE) and the Minnesota Vikings. Tennant was an integral part in the local contingent that presented its case to the league officials, building upon the region’s record of hosting major national and international sporting events over the years.
“As a community, we’ve shown time and again that we excel at executing major sporting events and welcoming people to Minneapolis and Minnesota,” said Melvin Tennant in a May 19 press announcement. “We know that hosting big events helps increase the number of visitors and visitor spending in our city … the NFL Draft, which will help showcase our city to the world, provide jobs for our tourism and hospitality workers, and positively impact the economic and social prosperity of Minneapolis.”
After relocating to the city in the late 2000s, Tennant became the second president and CEO of Meet Minneapolis, the city’s convention and visitors’ organization in 2008 after serving in similar roles in Charlotte, N.C., San Antonio, Texas and Oakland, Calif. He is a quiet, unassuming man who successfully leads a staff of nearly 60 people, and has overseen convention sales and marketing programs that bring a direct economic impact of $900 million to the area.
His work helps lay the groundwork in the bidding process of such events as the Super Bowl, NCAA championships, two All-Star games (MLB and WNBA) and other big time sporting events.
Meet Minneapolis in 2014 launched Sports Minneapolis to market and sell the city for amateur and pro events, sports-related conventions and related activities. But rarely if ever does the local mainstream media mention his involvement, the Black Press has done so several times over the years. Tennant is probably the only Black person in a key role.
“They basically allowed you to submit everything electronically now, so I guess they’ve gotten a little smarter in how they want their information presented,” said Tennant in a MSR phone interview – he once told us that during the successful 2018 Super Bowl bid the league wanted reams and binders of paper to support their proposal that his group supplied.
But true to his nature, Tennant rarely blows his own horn in this regard: “I am really so proud of the team because in spite of the adversity, in spite of the obstacles, they remained steadfast on the mission of the organization, and that is clearly to promote the economic and social benefit of Minneapolis by promoting us as a tourism destination,” he reiterated. “Meet Minneapolis takes that role and responsibility very, very seriously, and one of the reasons why people tend to stay … Meet Minneapolis has a very long tenured staff, and it’s because everybody buys into the mission, and to me that is just a very gratifying thing.”
Sports Business Journal in May ranked Minneapolis-St. Paul as the fifth best sports business city based on corporate sponsors, sports venues and other factors behind Atlanta (1), New York City (2), Indianapolis (3) and Charlotte (4).
Also not often discussed are the economic benefits to the so-called little people – the hotel workers, many of which are Blacks and POCs.
“I don’t think enough is said about that,” stressed Tennant. “Most of these workers that work in the hospitality (business) are people of color of minority populations and immigrant populations. These are the types of jobs that sometimes are gateway jobs to other jobs, but then there are also jobs where there is opportunity for growth.
“You would be surprised at how many people of color are in management positions at our Minneapolis Convention Center, and that has been something that we’re very proud of.”
Finally, Tennant says it will be “a nice summer” for events in the area including USA Volleyball junior nationals, the Asian-American journalists conference, WWE, the Savannah Bananas traveling baseball team, and the AFL-CIO 30th convention among other planned events scheduled to be hosted in Minneapolis sometime this year.
And Tennant and Meet Minneapolis stays busy drumming up convention and sporting events to come here.
“It’s just very, very fortunate for us to have an organization that has the staff professionals that can support bringing in these major events, and it’s just an absolute pleasure for me to lead Meet Minneapolis,” he concluded.
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses at challman@spokesman-recorder.com.