by: Diane Benjamin
Look at the schedule of events for the Coliseum: http://www.uscellularcoliseum.com/calendar-of-events/?month=6&year=2014&m=#markerdown
June:
- Highschool graduation
- 3 day Jehovah Witness convention
- 2 day Lomis Brothers Circus
July:
- Chris Tomin/Brandon Health
- Feast Bash
August:
- Crossfit Competition
September:
- 2 ISU Hockey games
- 1 Thunder Hockey game
October:
- 7 ISU Hockey games
- 4 Thunder Hockey games
How is the Coliseum paying the bills?
CIAM (Central Illinois Arena Management) is contracted to manage the Coliseum. They are supposed to generate money for salaries and overhead. Their payroll is around $75,000 per month based on their own reports of annual base salaries of $900,000.
In November they have Cirque Du Soliel scheduled for 6 shows. In December they have one ice show and 3 days of the State Farm Classic.
Has CIAM abandoned the Coliseum? Your tax dollars are most likely being diverted to the Coliseum Fund to keep them in business. Obviously CIAM isn’t generating enough to even cover salaries.
Meanwhile, the guy who used to be labeled as General Manager on the Coliseum website (Bart Rogers) is busy in Peoria as co-owner of the Rivermen Hockey Team. http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140804/Sports/140809722#ixzz39bprNQsR
The football team is defunct. The scheduled shows will not cover costs. The General Manager/Vice President spends more time in Peoria than Bloomington.
City Manager David Hales and Mayor Tari Renner promised a review of the Coliseum. http://blnnews.com/2014/07/27/what-happened-to-the-promised-coliseum-review/
It has NOT happened.
The taxpayers of Bloomington are being bleed dry by Coliseum Management. The contract needs to be immediately cancelled and management put out for bid. The contract has been violated many times. CIAM is currently in violation for NOT having a full-time manager with no other responsibilities and no football team.
Taxpayers need to demand accountability from their government. How dare Renner and Hales allow citizens to be fleeced any longer?
Nothing is going to happen until YOU demand changes. Get busy.
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Have Judy Markowitz do stand up comedy on all of the off days on the big stage!
They need revenue. Maybe something with tomatoes would work.
Maybe we should build a downtown hotel to bring in more events.
On a more serious note, here’s the dilemma. They need events to make money, but they also loose a lot of money on some of the events. Under that scenario I’d just as soon they not bring in events if they’re going to loose money. That then, raises the question of the need for the facility in the first place if nobody is going to come their events, to say nothing about personnel costs to pay people to run an empty facility. There’s a lot of money being spent by our city to cater to the Jehovah Witnesses.
No matter how you look at it this place is a losing proposition all the way around. I personally think it would make an excellent storage shed to replace the old Connect Transit building that we use to be able to use for free. Demolish the parking garage for more green space. By the time you calculate all the factors involved this may not sound so far fetched.