After more than 50 years of bringing motoring boats, fishing tackle, electronics and resort vendors into downtown St. Paul, the Sportsmen’s Show has pulled out of the capital city. The annual winter trade show planned for the St. Paul RiverCentre was quietly canceled in September as exhibitors wrestled with supply-chain issues, inventory demands and concerns about downtown crime.

Ordinarily, “we’d be down there setting up right now,” said Barry Cenaiko of Cenaiko Productions, which has brought the signature boat, camping and vacation exhibit series to St. Paul since his father launched the company in the late 1960s.

Cenaiko said he tried to explain the decision not to return to St. Paul in a recent Facebook post, but he chose to take down the online announcement after being deluged with negative feedback from St. Paul and Minneapolis supporters.

“It was just vitriol and hate,” he said in an interview Monday. “I think some people are upset that anyone would be critical of anything in either city; they were critical of our business decision, they were critical of us.”

Three factors

Cenaiko said shows in St. Cloud; Fargo, N.D.; and Sioux Falls, S.D., will continue as planned, but the St. Paul event ran aground due to three major factors.

Boat and dock companies have struggled to present new inventory, he said, due to international supply-chain slowdowns.

Minnesota’s resorts and lodges have enjoyed banner sales, inspired in part by closures at the Canadian border that ran through August 2021 and, more recently, a general societal interest in reconnecting with the outdoors after nearly three years of pandemic-driven virtual meetings and event cancellations.

Then there’s the growing hesitancy from suburban vendors to drive into downtown St. Paul or downtown Minneapolis following a national uptick in urban crime. There’s some evidence those crime numbers may be softening, but that hasn’t been enough to quell concerns.

“There wasn’t enough inventory for a lot of the marine dealers to do multiple shows, and a lot of the resorts and lodges did not want to come down to the Twin Cities, either St. Paul or Minneapolis,” Cenaiko said.

“We would have had about half the boat display as normal, and the same with the resorts and lodges,” he added. “We usually have hundreds (of resort vendors) and that wasn’t going to happen. … They either felt they didn’t need to because things have been going well, or they didn’t want to come down to the Twin Cities.”

Not ruling out a future return

Cenaiko said his company runs four operations in one, including Cenaiko Expo Inc., a trade show decoration company that has seen an uptick in demand and will take up more of his company’s focus.

Cenaiko, who has helped host events in downtown St. Paul since graduating from college in 1989, said he had not ruled out returning to the capital city in the future, and had every intention of continuing the long tradition of the Sportsmen’s Show at the RiverCentre until vendors began pulling out.

“During the summer, our talks were full steam ahead,” he said. “We’ve been business partners over 55 years. I don’t want it to be a real negative on the city. It’s just a changing landscape. And we chose to take this path. … It was just a business decision. We were not getting the exhibitor support that we normally enjoy.”

“We still have three sports shows and a boat show,” he added. “I’m not saying we’re never coming back, but it’s not happening now.”