For the July 8, 2002, edition, Mainebiz jumped into the outdoor products field with the Outdoor Issue. The cover featured stories about golf, camping gear and kayaks (with a headline, “How skinny boats became a fat Maine business”). A two-page spread on golf indicated the sport meant $205 million to the state’s economy and was booming — growth attributed to “the Tiger Woods effect” — yet boosters complained the state didn’t do enough to promote Maine’s golf courses. “It’s a $200 million sport that doesn’t get any state support. It’s almost baffling,” a golf course owner complained.
Fun Fact: In the Sept. 16, 2002, issue of Mainebiz, Maine Medical Center topped the list of largest Maine hospitals. It had 3,700 employees and revenue of $420.9 million. Today, it has 15,000 employees and revenue of $2.87 billion.