By: Diane Benjamin
Remember when the City of Bloomignton introduced VenuWorks? Remember how VenuWorks was going to be ultra transparent?
The City of Bloomington has a web page just to recap events at the Coliseum: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=21&parent=10697
The last event posted is from September.
The big concert last weekend isn’t posted.
Thunder Hockey games aren’t posted.
From the contract summary: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=10721
From the contract: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=10901
No monthly statements exist.
No Quarterly statements exist.
No recent event reports exist.
Looks like taxpayers were lied to again.
Four more years of Renner and this Council?
Hales is just warming a seat at this point. If you want another Renner puppet for the next City Manager, ignore the upcoming election.
If not, it’s up to you to make sure taxpayers are informed and show up to vote! A 10% turnout guarantees more government theft of your hard-earned money!
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Hey, no one likes to talk about bad news… You can be sure that if they had pulled in lots of money after expenses that you would be hearing about it. This facility is a boondoggle that will never break even or make money. We need to come to grips with this reality and stop pouring money into this rat hole. It needs to be closed and sold.
While selling it would look like the thing to do, with the history of this building, selling it would in all probability recover about 10 to 15 cents on the dollar. Long term that maybe the right course but short term it will still have to be paid off. A better solution might be to look for other uses or combinations of uses. Could local schools have a use or uses between schools. Small business’s might be another option. I don’t have all the answers but start looking outside the box.
They have a .25% sales tax to pay the mortgage. They also have a VenuWorks contract and debt to them of $750,000. Bloomington taxpayers are screwed.
The city would be better off giving it away….At least then all the city would be responsible for is the mortgage. The ongoing expenses (new sign, new concession carts, build new elevator, etc. etc.) add insult to injury.
The guys that run the Castle Theatre could do a better job.
The guys that run Castle Theatre have their own money invested.
Funny how that works.
I doubt anything will ever be done to pull the plug on this money pit until a more conservative council and mayor are elected and pony up and let it go. All the present council and mayor did in my opinion was kick the can farther down the road.
This isn’t exactly a boom time for the economy and people have less disposable income. The company I work for we just did our annual health care enrollment and the cost has gone up as well as the out of pocket cost. So what that means is people like myself have to cut some place. It isn’t just the company I work for but others are doing the same.
Don’t forget all the tax increases that you also attacking your wallet!
Renner and Hales, went $750,000 into debt with VenuWorks on complete blind faith, a truly disastrous decision. This company is a joke, and when the true extent of this fiasco is revealed Renner should be forced to resign and Hales fired immediately. But, because the entire council is complicit, all voted for the contact, it will not be done. VenuWorks should have been cut loose after their 3 month ‘probationary’ period, during which they secured a total of one minor concert, no naming rights, and installed a criminally corrupt general manager. Notice there is still no manager, still no naming rights, no public release of the catastrophic losses on VenuWorks’ watch, and an apparent freeze-out of the Coliseum from booking big shows. What do you want to bet that the financials are kept secret with the excuse of ‘an official investigation is ongoing’ until after the mayoral election.