All project supporters that I have ever dealt with have ALWAYS acknowledged [the Convention Center would be] a losing operation. That loss estimate ranged from $300K to $1.3M per year depending on who was estimating and when.
The CC was always supposed to be a loss-leader, just like that cheap roll of Bounty that you bought at Giant last week to get you in the store, if you can actually buy into that scenario as our elected “leaders” have.
This is just one of the reasons why I constantly ask how we judge a project expected to lose money? Do more events and a greater loss mean success or do less events and a lower operating loss equate to success?
Of course, you cannot forget the nebulous “economic impact” that its backers will claim that it created…kind of like the jobs that our current administration claims to have been “saved”.
At one point during the common management debate, when Penn Square Partners was trying to substantiate their one-sided deal, they even hinted that common management could save enough to break even, but they knew better and did not further that claim too far.
Nevertheless, it was always to be a loser. I expect it will ultimately lose no less than $3 million per year. The hotel [room sales] tax, even raised to its statutory limits, cannot support that. That’s when, bond guarantee “cap” or not, all of the CC expenses become County expenses because, regardless of the details of the bond guarantee, the County could not allow the building to be seized and sold to cover other creditors. We own this loser from here to eternity!
My guess is that [request for county funds] will happen in November or December of 2010, after the LCCCA draws down a sizable amount of its $1 million line of operational credit. And yes, it IS inevitable.