Friday, September 18, 2009
40 Jealous Whores / The Economy / Woods New Questions About Convention Center
Posted by Jeff Woods on Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 9:10 AM
Comments (26)
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I'd ask Obama's convention center czar for the money. Why not? If the costs go up, well, we can just get more.
The current convention center has been paid for in the same way. It's been around for about 25 years, and Nashville taxpayers haven't paid a single cent for it.
And as Channel 5 pointed out, but Jeff failed to mention, former Mayor Purcell did not support building a new convention center. (Recall that Purcell ran as the "neighborhood mayor" to contrast his priorities with the big projects of the previous administration.) It's hardly a suprise, then, that Mayor Purcell's finance director shared the same view.
Courtesy of Manning -- the same wizard who brought us TennCare and the BEP. By all means, let's trust HIS broken calculator.
Its look like Nate Rau reported this more than a year ago.
Come on, Woods. Get on page with your new co-worker.
Nate's article is excellent. His press secretary should post it in the comments section to the Channel 5 story. (Now that Nate writes for the Scene, I'm sure more people will read his work, including Jeff Woods, Ben Hall, and me.)
Another aspect of this is that Metro is ripping off the property owners whose property will be taken for the Convention Center.
They are trying to lowball the property owners by forcing them to sell during the worst economy and real estate market in many years.
"The current convention center has been paid for in the same way. It's been around for about 25 years, and Nashville taxpayers haven't paid a single cent for it."
That's not true. General fund money from Metro goes to pay operating expenses at the current center. About a million/year.
If there is any question then Metro should pull back the $80 million in bonds that it's giving to Gaylord.
Pay for the convention center before you give Gaylord corporate welfare.
Why can't they just do a hella, GD renovation on the EXISTING convention center????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
That is dead wrong, metro budget. All operating expenses, bond payments, marketing are paid with hotel/motel tax, have been since the day the convention center opened in 1987.
OBG, to avoid confusion, shouldn't we say that the hotel/motel tax paid for the costs of building the current convention center and also covers the million dollar (more or less) annual shortfall between revenues and operating expenses? (I presume that was what Metro Budget was referring to.)
Yes, Henry. Also, the current convention center opened in 1986. I wrote "1987" earlier.
Interesting arguments being made. Only supporters can make assertions of fact or their valid evidence is dismissed?
There is a bunch of general revenues going toward the center. Employees of the center are receiving metro health insurance and defined benefit retirement benefits. That is a lot of money. I would bet that they do not pay the full ride with NES and Metro Water and sewer services. Metwo picks up the audit expensesmand collects the various revenues with no commissions.
Sounds like Moost begrudges some people their hard-earned pay check.
The comment says all "operating expenses" are cover by hotel tax revenue. I would think that payroll is an "operating expense."
From the simple level of "is this any sort of credible investment?" the case for the place really hasn't been made--at a time when the number of conventions and trade shows has been shrinking, a lot, and the available places to go are many.
Sure, Nashville has its wonders and attractions to give it some leg up, but suppose THIS expenditure had the sort of "trigger" in it that comes up in health insurance debates. Let them show 25 conventions and shows a year for the first three years that are signed to come into the building before anybody has to pay to build it!
Let them prove it has a purpose and return useful to the rest of us who are, everybody suspects, going to wind up paying for some or much of it, somehow--and as opposed to other things.
Congressman John Conyers said he was trying to get 200 mil of stimulus money for a convention center in Detroit. We need a Conyers here.
Also, am I the only one that feels anonymous doesn't make sense at times?
As an aside, Dwight Lewis thinks a new education amendment to the US Constitution might be the answer to poor schools.
As for PETA, they should do a fund raiser, round up all the pit bulls and sell them to Vanderbilt. Who remembers that grand blog years ago? Hundreds of comments.
The numbers for this collosial project
are all over the place. I don't believe
for one minute the current or new MCC
has been self-sustaining. This project
reminds me of the Lebanon Bank teller who
spent $20,000. out of her drawer but planned
to put it back because she knew she would
win that weeks lottery. Didn't happen-
won't happen with these plans as well.
The Music City Center website says they have already booked 100,000 hotel room hours for 2013.
The Music City Center website says they have already booked 100,000 hotel room hours for 2013.
Incorrect: those advance booking numbers are over a seven-year period starting in 2013, not for 2013 itself. And as I showed in some quick back-o-the-envelope calculations last spring (http://tr.im/ziNF), 100,000 room nights appear to represent less than 3 percent of possible bookings over the period for which bookings are being sought and reported.
For a facility for which ground has yet to be broken I suppose one could argue that 3% is not chopped liver, but neither is it evidence that the market is craving this thing, especially without knowing the terms, inducements, and escape clauses that have been offered to secure these early bookings.
