PORTLAND – The city of Portland will share a unique place in American Hockey League history next January.

The 2010 Time Warner Cable AHL All-Star Classic was awarded to the city, making it just the fourth time in AHL history a city will host the event twice.

“We are proud to be here today to accept this responsibility and to be the stewards of what we consider to be one of the more important properties that our league has to offer and, for that matter, what is one of the more important properties professional hockey has to offer,” said Brian Petrovek, the Portland Pirates managing owner and CEO. “We are thrilled to be here. It’s a great day for our city. It’s a great day for our company and, obviously, it’s a great day for our fans.”

The event will be held Jan. 18-19 at the Cumberland County Civic Center. The city was the site of the 2003 game, and the Classic has since been shaped in a more fan-friendly manner after the success in Portland.

“The nature of the game changed a great deal, and the nature of the event changed,” said Dave Andrews, the AHL president. “It was made far more fan-friendly than ever before. All the events were opened up to fans. It was the first time our players were put in a position to enjoy the pregame and postgame festivities with fans from all around the league.”

The All-Star Skill Competition will be held Jan. 18 with a welcoming reception and post-competition party. On the 19, the AHL Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be held with the game to follow at 7 p.m. The post game activities features an Old Port pub crawl.

“To be in a position in the modern era to have this twice is very meaningful to us,” Petrovek. “We’re also looking at the history of this league and taking a step back and enjoying that we are only one of four teams in the 73-year history of the league to have this all-star game on more than one occasion. For us to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the likes of Hershey, Rochester and Providence really makes us feel good, and we’re very proud to be part of that group.”

Andrews said three cities submitted bids for next year’s event, which was held in Worcester this season. Factors that went into choosing a host were based on television, what was good for fans and what might suit the needs of their Hall of Fame ceremonies. The success of the 2003 event and the community connection already in place was significant in the decision.

“I think we felt that Portland was far further ahead in its preparations in terms of showing us what exactly would happen, how it would happen and how it would be successful than the other cities were,” Andrews said.

Next year’s event is expected to have a few new twists. The Ocean Gateway Terminal will host the reception prior to the skills competition. Merrill Auditorium will host the AHL Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. There will be a post-skill competition party featuring Bob Marley and other entertainers. The arena now has a videoboard, which didn’t exist in 2003.

“Our model was pretty good in 2003,” Petrovek said. “As Dave said, we were able to share it with other markets that came after us. We had a good model in 2003. It worked. We’ve tinkered with it a bit, but not a lot. It’s a peninsula-based, city of Portland-based event. It still has that opportunity to bring in Kittery, Freeport, Sugarloaf, Saddleback, York or whatever.”

The event is expected to infuse $1.4 million to the Portland economy. An estimated 800 hotel rooms will be booked, while local business and restaurants and area tourism should benefit. The television coverage, which had 100 million viewers this year, will also serve as a marketing tool for the city and surrounding areas.

“We look at this as clearly an economic driver,” Petrovek said. “When you look at the number of out-of-town visitors, the number of hotel room reservations and what is normally spent by a visitor and when you look at what the event in and of itself will generate, which is in the vicinity of half a million dollars that we wouldn’t otherwise have, it’s a $1.2 million to 1.4 million economic impact.”

Petrovek says it should also impact businesses outside of the Portland area. What the 2003 event showed was that fans would come to Maine ahead of time and visit ski areas, shopping areas and other attractions outside the city.

The event in Worcester sold out. With this event taking place on the Martin Luther King Holiday weekend and little competition from the NHL, a strong fan showing is expected.

“The fans that travel to this event has grown because they’re having a great time,” said Andrews. “They don’t get to get so close to the players on regular game nights in their own arenas. At our all-star events, our players have been incredibly gracious. They’ve attended all the events and mingled with fans all around the league. For a lot of our real core fans, it’s not an opportunity they normally get.”

Of the 488 players to compete in previous Classic’s since 1995, more than 93 percent have played in the NHL. The game features a Canadian team facing a roster of PlanetUSA all-stars. Starting lineups will be voted on by fans.

Portland Pirates season-ticket holders will have the first opportunity to purchase tickets before the general public, beginning Sept. 25. Tickets, which include both the skills competition and all-star game, are $49 and $42.