by:  Diane Benjamin

I’ve written MANY times about the company hired to manage the Coliseum – CIAM (Central Illinois Arena Management).  Type CIAM into the search box at blnnews.com to see them.

The City of Bloomington has failed in their fiduciary duty to the citizens of Bloomington by not providing over-site at the Coliseum.  Concessions have never been audited even though the City paid for point-of-sale equipment so they could track every transaction.  Currently there are very few events scheduled through the end of the year.  Financial statements have not been issued by CIAM as required by the contract.  The last statement posted to the City website is for August-October 2013, and it wasn’t issued until December.  CIAM is failing not only the City of Bloomington but the people paying the bills.  There aren’t generating much income.  The football team is defunct.  The basketball team got kicked out of their league last year – no word on who they are going to play this year.  Now a new hockey league will be playing – time will tell if they can stay in business.

Back in 2011 CIAM was trying to expand their empire.  Evansville Indiana had a new arena.  Looks like they put more thought into the process than the Bloomington City Council did when CIAM was hired.  The contract Evansville wanted included incentives.  CIAM’s contract doesn’t.  CIAM gets a percentage of the gross regardless of the net income generated.

CIAM didn’t get the contract:

 A. Central Illinois Arena Management

This is a small company which manages one arena in Bloomington, IL. One principal of this
firm had been active in the effort to convince the City government to fund that arena project.
They have managed the facility for a number of years. The facility is operated in part with
services provided by City employees so the BA arrangement did not present them with
concerns.

The company discussed their focus on management and the ability to attract talent to their
building. They are part of a booking coalition of “independently” managed arenas
(“independently” meaning not operated by one of the larger companies). They had
previously met with the Evansville Arena staff in June 2010 and were proud to report that
they had 13 concerts on their calendar through the end of 2010 while Roberts had only three.

Their proposal was to have one of the two owners move to Evansville to start up an operation
for the new arena which would likely include the move of one other senior manager.

While the Committee was enthusiastic about the abilities and personalities of the two owners,
in the end, the Committee concluded that there was an inadequate number of experienced
staff in the company to support a start-up in Evansville. There was also an obvious
vulnerability to some accident happening to one of the two owners and there being
inadequate support to fill the resulting void.

You can see the entire report here:  Evansville Indiana

Did the City of Bloomington know CIAM wanted to expand?  Evidently the Coliseum doesn’t need 2 highly paid managers since their proposal to Evansville included one of them moving there, so why do taxpayers continue to pay 2?  How many City resources were used to put together CIAM’s proposal to Evansville?  CIAM already runs a bus company from the Coliseum against the contract terms, is it possible they tried to expand their empire using City resources too?

Taxpayers are being told they have to pay to repair the parking garage, install new air conditioning equipment, and probably loan the Coliseum Fund money to pay employees.  The limited number of events scheduled won’t cover expenses.

The review of the Coliseum contract promised by City Manager David Hales and Mayor Renner HAS NOT taken place.  Aldermen Lower and Stearns were lied to so they would vote YES on the new Hockey League.

Mayor Renner claims he is transparent.  Mayor:  transparent isn’t making public what you think should be public and HIDING everything else.

Actually, you are transparent Mayor, the citizens can see right through you.

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