By: Diane Benjamin I’ve heard numerous times about the lack of people working Coliseum events. Last night was no exception. I believe the final hockey game to ever be played at the arena took place last night. A local business sponsored suites and handed out free tickets. According to an attendee, there was only 1 […]
By: Diane Benjamin The missing event reports from Grossinger Motors Arena have finally been posted. Details here: https://blnnews.com/2019/03/11/more-venuworks-city-fail/ Last year the Bacon and Beer Fest made a profit of $ 12,230.53. 1319 people attended. http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15976 This year the event was held earlier in the day, attendance dropped to 1166, profit dropped to $ 8,037.07. http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=21322 […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve been writing about the Coliseum and the lies media repeats for years! CIAM and VenuWorks created their own financial statements. Every local media uses their numbers and repeats them like gospel. Both can say anything they want in those statements – they create them. Numbers reported by both are not accurate, […]
By: Diane Benjamin According to the contract between the City of Bloomington and VenuWorks: PDF page 17 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=10901 The good news is the Competitive Cheerleading Finals shows an estimated profit of $49,539.52. Competitive Dance Finals showed a profit of $23,655.62. One report is missing: February 10th is more than 10 days ago. “No Later” […]
By: Diane Benjamin The first thing that is NEVER discussed is what government should do verses what they are doing. Budgeting requires making choices, Bloomington has decided roads aren’t that important. What they want it more important. You will probably be saddled with some type of water park and a sports complex this year. Let’s […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Council held a retreat on November 4, 2017. The minutes from the meeting show just how bad a City Manager David Hales was. See them here, rarely do the minutes reflect contentious discussions – you can see some of it here even if they don’t reflect how bad it was: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=16276 […]
By: Diane Benjamin As of 3/31/18 Normal had total debt of $89,823,286. $88,125,000 won’t be paid off until 2041. Interest rates range from 2.00% to 6.30%. Source As of 4/30/18 Bloomington had total debt of $242,010,034. $57,095,000 won’t be paid off until 2035. The interest rates aren’t listed. $173,646,119 is liabilities for pensions and associated […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington City Council has until April 1st to fire VenuWorks: PDF page 2 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=10901 The Coliseum (Grossinger Motors Arena) continues to fleece taxpayers. The audited loss for last year was $2,168,534. https://blnnews.com/2018/11/18/the-media-wont-report-this/ Taxpayers were deceived by the consultants before it was built – against the wishes of citizens. They predicted revenues […]
By: Diane Benjamin This event was scheduled last August for New Year’s Eve: http://www.grossingermotorsarena.com/arena-info/news/article/2018/08/grossinger-motors-arena-to-host-new-years-eve-featuring-hairball The website doesn’t say when or why it as canceled, but it is canceled: https://www1.ticketmaster.com/hairball/event/07005515D35C66E5 A concert is scheduled for January 19th – Old Dominion. Monster Trucks is coming February 8-10. See upcoming events here: http://www.grossingermotorsarena.com/events-and-tickets/calendar Hockey doesn’t generate enough money […]
By: Diane Benjamin Pepsi hasn’t paid for naming rights at the Ice Center for years. That doesn’t keep Bloomington from still giving them free advertising: PDF page 196 of the annual financial statements: http://www.cityblm.org/home/showdocument?id=20281 “Pepsi” is also on PDF pages 32 and 33. Grossinger Motors does pay for naming rights of the former US […]
By: Diane Benjamin Long time readers know the former Coliseum managers would issue their financial statements, and then the auditor would issue theirs. The media always reported the CIAM numbers but never the audited numbers. Audited losses were much higher! The media is continuing to report fake news because the audited number from VenuWorks aren’t […]
By: Diane Benjamin The picture below is from October 20th – Flying Aces Hockey. The person who posted this to Facebook was playing a game, the beer won. The team has to pay $5,000 to the arena just to play there. Grossinger Motors Arena management makes money regardless of how many people show up. The […]
By: Diane Benjamin Of course a feasibility study was done before the Coliseum was built. It predicted Revenue of $7.1 million and expenses of $4.8 million. Operations would easily cover the cost of building it. https://blnnews.com/2016/02/11/the-tale-of-the-coliseum-tari-a-hotel/ At last night’s Committee of the Whole meeting, VenuWorks stated the arena would never lose LESS than $500,000. Any […]
By: Diane Benjamin The VenuWorks report is not the audited version, it is therefore immaterial. Time allowed for the presentation is 5 minutes, included will be the fictional economic impact of the arena. See PDF page 40: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=19928 Financial information is on PDF page 39. The loss does not include depreciation on the building which […]
By: Diane Benjamin Note: Comments on this site will be deleted if it’s obvious the writer is only trying to attack. It’s my site – my rules. Either come here to have discussion or start your own site. Note to the idiot commenting about BEC. The election results are not posted where they should be […]
By: Diane Benjamin It’s really hard to say what BN Advantage is, except that they soak up your money. Supposedly it’s a collaboration of government, the Economic Development Council, the Chamber of Commerce, and anybody else who is searching for the “Right Fit” in economic development.
By: Diane Benjamin Five people involved with running the Coliseum have been charged with felonies. The failure by the City of Bloomington to protect taxpayer dollars deserves to be exposed in open court. The citizens didn’t want it built, there was a non-binding referendum stating it. It was built anyway and has been a constant […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington 2019 budget PDF page 15 http://www.cityblm.org/home/showdocument?id=18370 Guess why your roads can’t get fixed? See the chart below for what gets close to $6 million dollars this year! Remember when Markowitz said it would never cost you a dime? PDF pages 13-14: When the budget was done, the City was […]
By: Diane Benjamin Maybe the City can compensate Grossinger for all the bad publicity by giving them naming rights to the Ice Center. Pepsi quit paying for it YEARS ago, but even in meeting documentation Parks and Rec still calls it Pepsi Ice Center. I bet Pepsi loves it – free advertising! Monday night this […]
By: Diane Benjamin The local paper has an editorial declaring the new City Manager the right guy because Decatur re-did their downtown. They think Normal did, so there is no reason Bloomington can’t. They forgot Normal was in ZERO debt before they spent around $100,000,000 on Uptown. (Is that restaurant space on the Circle still […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll Monday night: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=17676 Bi-Weekly Overtime! (hours/payment – PDF page 6) Weekly employees Overtime: Two entries for Sick Leave Buy Back. Pension Spiking: More expenses for the Coliseum? They haven’t gotten to the elevator yet. Consultants – Administration How many downtown properties aren’t paying taxes because Bloomington bought them? Maybe […]
By: Diane Benjamin The majority of the Council thinks government creates prosperity. The failure of the State of Illinois should be instructive, to them Illinois just isn’t doing it right. Congrats – you are getting another City employee with salary and benefits. That makes 3 new downtown employees. The Council failed to understand that past […]
By: Diane Benjamin February events – net profit on each event is listed Bacon a Beer Fest – 12,230.53 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15976 8 tickets were comp’d, I wonder to who? Hockey 2/17 – 6,231.53 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15978 452 tickets Comp Hockey 2/7 – 1,109.92 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15928 384 tickets Comp Guns and Hoses – 2,799.53 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15926 0 Comp IHSA Cheerleading – 46,391.53 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15830 302 […]
By: Diane Benjamin We used to get lots of interesting information in the City Manager’s monthly reports. The City Manager quit doing them because the reports showed information the City didn’t want you to know – like monthly tax receipts and library traffic. The financial statements the City just got around to releasing from almost […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin One more recap from Monday’s City Council meeting: VenuWorks recapped what they wanted to bring to the BCPA, including saving an estimated $200,000 a year in operations. VenuWorks has access to an email list of 409,000 people in Central Illinois to help promote shows VenuWorks has plans for new revenue including concessions […]
By: Diane Benjamin Source: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=14998 Citizens may not realize when they pay bills by credit card the City gets charged a fee for accepting the card. Just for one month there is over $81,000 listed as “Credit Card Fees”. See PDF page 161-163. That’s money that can’t be used for anything else. There are other charges […]
By: Diane Benjamin Illinois increased income taxes again! The stack of unpaid bills increased! Since Illinois has “been there-done that”, and the unpaid stack still got bigger, that’s proof government doesn’t exist for anybody but itself. Monday Bloomington will do the same! PDF page 281. The City needs $136 Million over the next 20 years […]
By: Diane Benjamin When the Pantagraph appears to do a study of anything, it usually means Bloomington is up to something and using them to gauge public opinion. Today it was legal expenses and justifying the outrageous amount the City sends to Springfield every month while telling you not to buy on the internet – […]
By: Diane Benjamin Former Central Illinois Arena Management (CIAM) head, John Butler, might be back at the former Coliseum with the Bloomington Thunder hockey team. Even though the State Police investigation hasn’t wrapped up yet (as far as we know), an investor in the Thunder has purchased a majority interest in the Peoria Rivermen where […]
