The sad result was that very few bars saw much in the way of revenue increases due to delegates partying until the wee hours of the morning. The News Room in Minneapolis, which forked over the two grand and hired additional staff for the week, said this issue was a “sore topic.” Was the fee worth it, we asked? Manager Pete Kelly passionately fired back with an “unequivocally no!”

Although two St. Paul bars — The Liffey and The Happy Gnome — said that business did thrive, it wasn’t from the nearly 45,000 convention goers. Liffey manager Matt Ellis said told Yeas & Nays that St. Paulians simply loved having two extra hours of drinking. The fact that delegates were bussed out of St. Paul right after the last speech didn’t help either and kept the bar full of their weekly regulars.

Hotels near the Xcel Energy Center didn’t see that much of a change in their business. Aside from a busy lunch crowd of Washington’s “Who’s-Who” at their legendary St. Paul Grill, St. Paul Hotel manager David Miller said their bar was “never full” and they hardly ever stayed open until 4 a.m.  If the permit had been $2500, Miller continued, then it definitely “would not have been worth it.” 

So then the question remains: Where did everyone go?  Carolyn Miller, director of Operations at The Seville Club, a strip club in Minneapolis, provides some clues, stating happily that the convention was a “great event” for business.