By: Diane Benjamin
The City of Bloomington paid consultants before building the white elephant. They predicted revenues of $7,000,000 a year and net income of $2,319,000 a year. https://blnnews.com/2015/07/21/coliseum-the-jokes-on-you/
The City has now gifted the financial statements from almost a year ago – 4/30/2017. The Coliseum audited statements are included: http://www.cityblm.org/home/showdocument?id=15348
Revenue for the year was $2,643,835. The consultants were only off by $4.4 million!
The operating LOSS was $2,028,881. The City of Bloomington kicked in $2,348,626 not including Home Rule Sales Tax of $1,282,752. The Coliseum returned $1,282,752 to the bond repayment fund. Details on PDF page 15.
Last Monday the City handed over another $375,000.
The video from both meetings is still not posted!
Just using actual cash in and out they lost $584,411 – not including paying the bonds.
How did they lose money on investments? Page 10 states they use the same investment policies as the City of Bloomington.
The agreement with VenuWorks was signed on July 1, 2016. http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=10901
That means the Coliseum was operated solely by VenuWorks under a new contract from July 2016 to April 30, 2017 when the fiscal year ended. For 10 months they operated under a different agreement for concessions than CIAM.
As more proof the audits are meaningless, the auditor included this statement on page 9:
CIAM quit on March 8, 2016. That was BEFORE this fiscal year began May 1, 2016. This statement is wrong, but included in the audit report anyway.
David Hales LOVED capital leases – essentially putting purchases on a credit card with a relatively low interest rate.
Grossinger Motors Arena now has THREE of them for equipment purchases:
Details on PDF page 14.
See PDF page 19
This is how Dixon Il lost over $50,000,000! VenuWorks claims they compensate. Other irregularities are also noted on the same page and the following page.
The VenuWorks contract doesn’t expire until June 30, 2021.
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you are able to see this crap , why aren’t they ,, do they never do their homework or just don’t give a rats but about much .
Downtown downtown, downtown! The Coliseum will make people flock there. In other words, they wear blinders.
Downtown is a destination, said no one ever! Wow…Give those consultants another project and more money! Better yet, how about a cushy government job with a department and budget, right Trish?
Bloomington is not a destination either except for college students during the 4-6 years of attendance.
So, Diane…How much money would Bloomington save if it sold off the Coliseum? I suspect, like the people in City Hall, it’s upside down. That is, if sold at market rate, revenue from the sale couldn’t pay off the balance of the bond. However, if we stopped operating the Coliseum altogether we could actually save money. Right now, essentially, the City of Bloomington is paying people to go there. Imagine if a restaurant owner paid people to eat there. How quickly would he/she go out of business?
I doubt there is a market for it. I suggest they give the place to the Pepsi Ice center since they need more ice. They are renting it for over $200 per hour from VenuWorks. The problem is VW has a contract. Nothing can be down until it’s over.
Tear it down and make parking for ALL the people heading downtown!