Editor’s Note: The following letter comments on the April 7 New Era article: “A center for conventions, and more; Stadium seating for concerts, portable dance floors for wedding receptions, a ring for prize fights and, oh yeah, conventions will fit on center’s exhibition hall.”
This article doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story.
It doesn’t mention that about one-third of the “open, 46,000-square-foot space” has a relatively low ceiling. This means that only about two-thirds of the convention hall can be used for anything other than conventions or banquets.
This article doesn’t mention that even folding “stadium seating” would take up a considerable amount of the convention hall exhibit space, since there would be nowhere other than the main convention hall big enough to move or store it. This means that two or three rows of booths would be permanently lost for any possible convention, which could translate into a LOT of revenue from booth and equipment rental.
This article doesn’t mention that even folding “stadium seating” would ruin the carefully-designed aesthetics of the convention hall, making it look more like a gymnasium than the high-class convention center they are trying so hard to sell.
This article doesn’t mention that there is absolutely positively no money available to purchase “stadium seating”, which was never a part of the original convention center plans. The construction budget is running a deficit, even with Sen. Gib Armstrong’s additional last-minute $3 million grant; what little surplus will be available from the FF&E (fixtures, furnishings, and equipment) budget will be needed to help close the construction budget deficit. The LCCCA’s operating budget is impossibly tight, thanks to the final financing agreement.
This means Interstate Hotels and Resorts would need to purchase “stadium seating” out of their own funds. But IHR’s projected revenue falls short of what will be required to operate the convention center without additional tax revenue, on top of what will be left over from the “hotel tax” after bond and interest payments.
In other words: hang on, they’re preparing us for the first tax increase!
