 Well, we've officially reached the week of Hockey Day Minnesota. The event is known nationally and it's expected to bring a big economic boost to its host city, Bemidji. Reporter Cheryl Moore tells us about how Hockey Day's impact will be felt in Bemidji. From the shoppers to the exposure, the city of Bemidji can expect a pretty good economic impact thanks to Hockey Day Minnesota. The impact is so hard to measure because it's so immense in a lot of different areas. I mean, all the hotel rooms were booked on July 3rd for a weekend in January. That does not happen in Bemidji, Minnesota very often. More than 3,000 people have purchased tickets for each day of Hockey Day so far. And officials say sales usually tend to go up as we get closer to the event. Businesses in downtown Bemidji have been preparing for the extra foot traffic by hosting special Hockey Day deals and events themselves. It's been super cool to see everybody get so enthused about this and get Hockey Day fever because every business, it seems, is doing something a little bit different. You go around town, you see all the posters up about the schedule of events. They're all wearing Hockey Day garb or they've got some Hockey Day specials going on. Everybody's embracing this. We have a group of volunteers that put an enormous amount of work into this. As a community, we should be thankful for those volunteers. But the business community also stepped up and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to make this an event that people will remember and people always see as special for Bemidji. There's the obvious Hockey Day effects, like more people spending money in the community, but there's also a few not-so-obvious effects. Hockey Day is a nationally known event, so for Bemidji to be its venue is pretty huge. The direct spending in our community is enormous, but there's also indirect impacts in terms of media coverage and coverage about our community, and it's an ability for us to showcase what's special about Bemidji and to show that we are the emerging regional center. More people will get to experience Bemidji, which can lead to more tourists in the future. But it's not all about the tourists. Locals will have a big part in the impact as well. All the people doing some shopping, eating at our local restaurants, of course, and then staying at our hotels. But then you add in all the locals who are going to have to gear up, you know, and with the weather forecast the way it is, I bet we sell a lot of blankets. There's going to be a lot of people in town selling blankets and hats. Reporting in Bemidji, Shawmore, Lakeland News. We'll have special hockey day Minnesota coverage all week long here on Lakeland News at 10. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.