Even as the Greensboro Coliseum grapples with yet another budget deficit, expenses related to the coliseum complex just seem to keep growing.
Earlier this year, the City Council approved funding for an $18 million aquatic center to be located near the coliseum. Then in March, as the ACC men’s basketball tournament was wrapping up, coliseum director Matt Brown unveiled the floor plan for the proposed ACC Hall of Champions, which would be located in the coliseum’s special events center.
Brown already has secured $2 million in state funding for the project, and has estimated that additions could total as much as $18 million. The first phase is tentatively scheduled to open in time for the 2011 ACC Tournament, which the coliseum will host.
Next in line is a proposed amphitheater to be located on the site of a former Canada Dry bottling plant that the city purchased in 2008.
The cost of the amphitheater has never been clear. In October the Greensboro News & Record reported the City Council was out of the loop on preliminary site work that had already begun.
The News & Record article left the impression that the total cost of the amphitheater would be $95,000. But at a March 16 City Council meeting, a consent agenda item requested a change order in the amount of $35,000 for site work — in addition to the $95,000 already spent.
Council member Robbie Perkins asked Brown point-blank how much money would be required to finish construction so performances could be held as early as this summer.
Brown replied that another $350,000 would be required, in addition to the $130,000 that already had been spent on site work.
However, Brown added that approximately half of that additional $350,000 could come from private sponsorships. “That would get us closer,” Brown said. “It may not get us in the first year with a complete covered stage, but it would get us to the point where we could host events within a fiscal year.”
Perkins — a staunch supporter of the coliseum — stressed that it was essential to complete the amphitheater quickly, so it could generate revenue to help reduce the coliseum’s budget deficit.
Perkins stressed that the council urgently make a decision about more funding for the amphitheater “before our decision is made for us by the weather.”
Another coliseum supporter, council member Zack Matheny, expressed disappointment that Brown had been less than forthcoming about the amphitheater. But he agreed with Perkins that the city needed to see more revenue from the coliseum complex.
“When the amphitheater news broke, I was somewhat surprised, and Mr. Brown and I had an extensive conversation,” Matheny said. “We’ve got to generate revenue, and many coliseums in Greensboro and elsewhere aren’t going to book that many concerts during the summer. This is a way we can produce revenue.”
All this debate comes as the City Council once again grapples with a solution to the coliseum’s chronic budget deficit. The current council — headed by Mayor Bill Knight — was elected on a platform of fiscal conservatism, and as the budget season get underway, talk of going over the coliseum’s budget with the proverbial fine-toothed comb once again is emerging.
Privatization once again has been brought up, as has Perkins’ proposal of a coliseum authority to oversee operation and finances.
The amphitheater issue was introduced right after the coliseum hosted the ACC Tournament, which in the past has been touted as a huge revenue driver for the complex and the city.
But attendance at this year’s tournament was lackluster, evidenced by the large rows of empty seats. While the tournament was officially sold out — tickets are sold in advance — a decline in attendance reduced parking and concession revenues.
Furthermore, the NCAA is seriously considering expanding the national tournament to 96 teams as early as next season. Such a move could significantly compromise conference tournaments, because most teams from major conferences would make a larger national tournament field.
There’s even speculation that if the national tournament expands, then conference tournaments would simply be done away with altogether. Such a development would not bode well for Greensboro or its coliseum, which is scheduled to host the tournament four of the next five years.
Sam A. Hieb is a contributor to Carolina Journal and edits the John Locke Foundation’s Piedmont Publius blog.