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VIEWPOINT: Convention Center deal needs more details |
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By Yvonne D. Hawkins
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Tuesday, 31 July 2007 |
The question is: Why?
City officials are negotiating with Philadelphia-based Global Spectrum to seal a long-term deal for the management company to run the Sioux Falls Convention Center.
Global Spectrum took over management July 1 under a temporary agreement that expires after 90 days.
On Aug. 9, the City Council will get an updated version of a proposed five-year contract with Global Spectrum, which took over the management duties from John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts.
As part of the proposed contract, the Sioux Falls Convention & Visitors Bureau would oversee bookings that are 18 months in advance and longer, while Global Spectrum would manage operations and short-term bookings.
For its part, Global Spectrum executives are totally fine with the arrangement. Brett Mitchell, vice president of convention center operations for Global Spectrum, says he expects that the system would work out well.
And Teri Ellis Schmidt, executive director of the CVB, says the joint venture is part of the trend in selling convention centers to businesses.
Plus, CVB officials say the ability to book events would help it better compete nationally for events.
But the question remains: Why?
Why is it better for the CVB to book those events instead of Global Spectrum? Wouldn’t that be a logical part of Global Spectrum’s contractual responsibilities?
Since the CVB, which largely is funded by a lodging tax, has asked the City Council to increase its cut by $600,000 to handle the extra work, it would be good to know what the advantage is to having two entities booking events for the same facility.
It’s good that the CVB and Global Spectrum have a plan that would make bookings rather seamless so that inquiring groups wouldn’t get shuffled around in order to deal with the appropriate organization.
And who knows? The city, indeed, might benefit from the arrangement. It sure would be great to see a flood of additional bookings come Sioux Falls’ way.
But the point is that residents largely have been left without information needed to offer well-informed support.
As a matter of fact, the whole Global Spectrum deal took many folks, including business people who generally are in-the-know, by surprise.
So the question still is: Why? What’s the benefit that would support the investment? And are we sure that the benefit couldn’t be gained in other ways?
That’s needed information especially because the trend in most of the business world is toward consolidating services.
Heck, I walked into my company’s building the other day and overheard a colleague in our accounting department making a business call on behalf of the newspaper in St. Cloud, Minn.
For a second, I wondered if I mysteriously had been energized in Star Trek-like fashion to the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
Then I remembered that Argus Leader Media has taken on some functions for a corporate sister paper.
So I figure that if a ginormous media company can consolidate duties, certainly Global Spectrum can handle long-term bookings.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that the pending arrangement is a totally bad one. But it might be easier to support if folks just knew, well, why. |