By: Diane Benjamin
If you haven’t heard, the trial for John Butler as a result from his time managing the Coliseum got delayed again. It will supposedly happen on August 10th.
More event reports have been posted, all show a profit. See if you can figure out what is embarrassing about this one:
VenuWorks is doing more “rentals” now which limits profits but also protects them from losses. Paw Patrol did 3 shows and the total attendance was only 2651? The actors must have felt like they were performing for themselves, the arena seats over 7000 people.
Another profit and rental:
There are other hockey events posted too, all rentals and all show a profit:
https://www.cityblm.org/government/advanced-components/documents/-folder-1817
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Good to see some profitable events – That’s certainly a step in the right direction!
The next step is to try to get enough such events to cover keeping the lights on, then enough to cover the interest on the building bonds, then enough to cover the bonds themselves. Not holding my breath on Any of those, but if they’ve managed to exceed expectations on one step, maybe they can do more…
The low attendance is worrisome above and beyond any embarrassment, however. It’s hard to continue getting profitable-for-the-venue events if event-holders find they aren’t profitable for them as well, never mind us finding even More profitable-for-the-venue events.
My wife, kids, and our friends all went to the show. From the pictures/videos, it was a good event and nice to see it turned a profit versus costing the town more money. I’ll take more events like that and IHSA, anyday, that help prevent losses.
I will say, my wife commented that they only use half the arena, at most for the setup of those shows. I don’t think this particular event is meant to have 7,000 attendees. Perhaps an event they could have had at the BCPA (one that actually turns a profit) or the Bone Student Center.