The expected crowd of about 300 looks modest compared to the Anaheim Convention Center’s biggest events, but the youth dance competition scheduled there this weekend feels huge to city and tourism officials.

For months the convention center has served as a COVID-19 testing site and it more recently became a vaccination clinic, but Maryland-based Starpower’s touring dance talent contest will be its first non-coronavirus-related event in more than a year.

“For us it’s very meaningful because it’s the start of the Anaheim comeback, the comeback for the convention center,” city spokeswoman Lauren Gold said.

The dance competition is the first of a half-dozen youth sports events the convention center will host in the next few months, with a fencing tournament in May, volleyball in June and more dance in July.

“It’s a very resilient market and we knew it would come back before other types of events,” because youth sports were already cleared to resume practices and matches, and their events can be planned with less lead time than a major trade show or corporate meeting, Visit Anaheim CEO Jay Burress said.

Signs of life

While tourism officials wait for the state to further lift restrictions on large gatherings, youth sports are a small oasis in a pandemic-created desert that has dried up the flow of visitors not just to the city-owned convention center and Disneyland, but to the surrounding hotels and other businesses.

Rick Cerney, who owns a Subway sandwich shop about a half block from the convention center, said he had to close for about seven months because without Disney and convention visitors, he just didn’t get enough business.

“Absolutely we’re pleased to hear” about this weekend’s dance competition, he said. In normal times, locals don’t want to fight tourist crowds and traffic, so “the only reason these businesses exist in this neighborhood is the convention center and Disneyland.”

Cerney reopened at the end of March, and he’s starting to see signs of life: the Starbucks next door just ordered a platter of sandwiches for an employee orientation.

Besides helping boost adjacent businesses, smaller events like youth sports competitions will give convention center staff the chance to fine-tune their COVID-19 protocols, which include masks for all, touchless hand sanitizer dispensers, physical distancing, Plexiglas barriers and cashless transactions.

They’ll also be experimenting with new ways to use outdoor spaces including two large plazas, decks and balconies, Burress said – and they may incorporate other sites for some bookings, such as the nearby GardenWalk mall, Honda Center and Angel Stadium.

Other preparations have also led to this moment: in March 2020, the Anaheim City Council voted to give about $6 million to Visit Anaheim to fund the tourism bureau’s operations (its budget normally comes from a cut of hotel taxes).

Burress said part of the money helped keep some staff in place to re-book canceled events, and the rest was saved until the time was right for marketing campaigns to help persuade pandemic-weary families to stay in area hotels, perhaps turning a baseball game or trip to Downtown Disney into an overnight or weekend getaway.

It’s a start

While this weekend’s event may lead to a comeback, it’s still only the start.

Visit Anaheim laid off more than half its staff last spring as tourism plummeted, and Burress said although it has ended furloughs for the 32 full-time workers that remain, it’s not yet ready to rehire. He noted that new bookings and re-booked 2020 events are expected to generate about $11 million in hotel taxes, significantly more than the city chipped in. Staffing for the convention center is done by the city.

But brighter days are predicted. Cerney, the Subway owner, expects to do big business this summer (Disneyland reopens April 30), the state plans to loosen restrictions even more in mid-June, and Burress said the first conventions return to Anaheim in August.

Other key events are now on the convention center’s calendar, including the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) annual show in January, which is one of the center’s biggest draws – more than 120,000 people attended in 2019.

And next March will see the return of a convention with perhaps symbolic importance: the Natural Products Expo West, whose cancellation in early March 2020 was an unfortunate bellwether of the year that followed.

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