I guess the Event Center Task Force will be meeting tommorow at the Morningside Community Center on Bahnson between 11 AM – 1 PM. The topic of discussion is the recent consultant findings and recommendations. Should be an interesting meeting. If I am incorrect about the time, I will update this post before then.
I also took a peak at May’s financial report for the city (Item 9 A)
The city was only up $204,087 dollars from last year May in tax receipts. Ouch! Gonna be a little hard to hit that proposed Half-Billion dollar budget with those kind of gains.
The only people they’ll hear from are old folks with nothing better to do than complain, and Sy’s and my little buddy, who is on summer break. Why can’t they hold these things in the evening so more people can come?
“Why can’t they hold these things in the evening so more people can come?”
So more people don’t come.
If they build it downtown, I will come.
You never know Sy, this whole thing may come full circle and that may happen. I often thought that the Arena location is a ruse to tear down Howard Wood so they could get a new stadium for the school district.
I really wish it would, I know a few members of the original Event Center committee and they told me that when the first convened there was slightly more than half that thought the Interstate location down South or by I29/I90 was definately the way to go. But when presented with the payback analysis and hearing some firsthand accounts of what’s happened in Omaha and Sioux City, it didn’t take long for the Cherapa site to be the unanimous choice for a site.
It’s just too bad that they lumped the Rec Center in there and that many thought it was simply a plan to help enrich Jeff Scherslight of Howalt. He does just fine on insurance, he’s not a developer. In fact, that deal he put on the table for the city is a steal for that site. Your talking like $8 per sf (what he paid 6 years ago) and ground downtown has been going for $18 per sf or more.
I think all of this indecision and horsing around by the task force and city doesn’t look good to the citizens.
The funny part is that the task force tried to keep a lid on the consultant report, but a friend that attends the meetings on regular basis tipped off the media about the release. I guess the task force was a little surprised they were there. A little birdy told me today that there is going to be a big crowd at today’s meeting to.
L3wis:
“I think all of this indecision and horsing around by the task force and city doesn’t look good to the citizens.”
Phuc n a it doesn’t. From first airing of the proposal to first opening of the doors it took Fargo 5 years to build the Dome.
I think the TF has a couple folks slapping their dicks on the table during the non-public meetings and they have their minds made up they want a big, concrete box at the Arena and they don’t give a shit about any alternative and more compelling info.
Too many Chiefs not enough indians. But that’s how things work in this town. I’ve been telling you that for a long time Sy. Decisions are made by an elite few who are out of touch with the mainstream ideas. Just look at the Rec center fiasco. The public said they wanted a smaller venue in a different location and the city said ‘fuck you’ we’ll do what we want. Same thing with the indoor pool. You would think they have learned a lesson. Guess not. I have often felt it would be worth $5-$10 grand to put up an online survey that is also mailed out and printed in the paper about what kind of facility the PUBLIC wants. That would be a good starting point. It also should ask the public how they want it funded.
There will never be a public poll because if you asked the citizens where the EC should be built, I can almost promise you the majority would pick a location other than downtown or Howard Wood.
In fact, I’m not sure you could even get a majority to agree we should be building an EC in the first place.
I’m not saying the public opinion is right or wrong, but I’m quite sure the reason the city leaders don’t ask for citizen input on a wide scale is because they don’t want to hear the response.
If I had to pull a number out of my butt, I would guess that 51% of the public supports a new EC.
But if you posed the question in regards to funding I bet you would get a different answer
FUND WITH A BED BOOZE TAX 60% SUPPORT
FUND WITH RETAIL TAX INCREASE 35% SUPPORT
FUND WITH A COMBINATION OF CORPORATE ENTERTAINMENT TAX AND PRIVATE SPONSORSHIP 80% SUPPORT
I keep saying it is about funding.
I attended the meeting today, they are stuck on the HWF/Arena site, but aren’t sure if we should build one be all end all Events Center or maybe look at two facilities. One for games/concerts and another for conventions/tradeshows/events.
Didn’t seem to occur to them that if we are talking two facilities, we should be talking two sites. They kept referring to an Arena vs. a Coliseum.
They want to figure out that question before they ask the Consultant to put together a pro-forma on whether or not the thing will fly.
They also were at the point of eliminating the idea of an indoor football venue, but didn’t want to make that call since the one major backer of that idea (I can only assume they meant Dykehouse) wasn’t in attendance.
I’ll give them credit, they are trying. But they can’t see the forest through the trees.
Some other points;
We are seriously behind the 8 ball on all phases, whether you are talking conventions, trade shows, concerts, games, etc. It’s amazing we draw what we draw. We lose or almost lose a ton of business due to lack or airline service. The person who usually signs the contract nearly craps him/herself when he looks at direct flights into SF vs. Omaha. We also lack the type & number of hotel rooms they want, the shopping & dining amenities they want, and the overall experience most of these people are accustomed too. It’s amazing we can book shit at all.
Also, they are taking their sweet time, but you can tell the sentiment of trying to please everyone is guiding the process. Again, the point of the Task Force should be to put together the best plan, whether or not it’s the most popular or it’s on the path of least resistance. They are going to put together a plan, then ask the consultant to give them the pro-forma to make it fly politically, which seems entirely bass-ackwards to me.
I still think they need to have the funding set in stone first.
We don’t have the dining amenities they want? Are you serious? At one point, and I can’t say if this is still the case, Sioux Falls had more resturaunts per capita than any city in the US.
As far as hotel rooms, if there is demand there will be a supply, but hotels can’t live upon a half dozen large events a year – they need to keep their occupancy rates up on a consistent level if they want to remain in business, so that is a fairly lame excuse.
Flights in and out of our airport is hardly something that will change due to a few conventions or big events either. We are a city of roughly 150,000 whereas the Omaha area sits at closer to 850,000. To put that in perspective, they have almost as many people in the Omama area than we have in our ENTIRE STATE.
If people don’t think we offer enough for their needs as far as I’m concerned they should seek other alternatives. I don’t think our entire city should base itself around how many conventions or concerts they can pack in each year. A city should be built around the residents who actually live there 365 days a year instead of those who come for a visit, and frankly it would be a refreshing change to hear just one of our city “leaders” come out in the open and say something other than we need to grow and expand.
Merely getting bigger is never going to solve the problems and in many cases it just presents new ones. At what point do people just stand back and say we might just be big enough?
Why all the focus on trying to compete with Omaha or Fargo or Des Moines or Sioux City? We are what we are – we aren’t going to change that, and we aren’t going to die off just because a few concerts or conventions overlook us for larger venues.