{"id":3783,"date":"2012-09-25T14:16:52","date_gmt":"2012-09-25T18:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/?p=3783"},"modified":"2012-09-25T15:17:35","modified_gmt":"2012-09-25T19:17:35","slug":"a-new-arena-for-savannah-should-we-just-throw-in-the-towel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2012\/09\/25\/a-new-arena-for-savannah-should-we-just-throw-in-the-towel\/","title":{"rendered":"A new arena for Savannah &#8212; should we just throw in the towel?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5595881567027133\";\r\n\/* Medium Rectangle *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"8584504377\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>My last two City Talk columns talked about Savannah&#8217;s proposed new arena, which will replace &#8212; eventually, I hope &#8212; the aging Martin Luther King, Jr. Arena at the Civic Center.<\/p>\n<p>Last Tuesday, I <a href=\"http:\/\/savannahnow.com\/exchange\/2012-09-18\/elton-john-concert-highlights-need-new-savannah-arena#.UGGwQ7JlTK0\" target=\"_blank\">talked about the woefully inadequate current venue<\/a> after attending the Elton John concert there.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, I took a look at <a href=\"http:\/\/savannahnow.com\/exchange\/2012-09-23\/financing-options-savannahs-proposed-arena#.UGGwArJlTK0\" target=\"_blank\">the costs and financing options<\/a> for comparable new arenas in other cities.<\/p>\n<p>Because of the deep economic downturn, a sharp decrease in the funds available from the current Special Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), and the reallocation of some of those one percent tax levies, we have only $19 million (I thought it was $22 million until today) earmarked for a new arena, as opposed to the $70+ million in available tax money that was promised when voters approved the current SPLOST back in 2006. In 2006, it was also assumed &#8212; not unreasonably &#8212; that plenty of other revenues would be available to move ahead with the arena project.<\/p>\n<p>The $20 million currently earmarked has been the subject of a good bit of discussion, including a push from the Sand Gnats owners to build a new stadium on a portion of the Savannah River Landing site.<\/p>\n<p>But now City Manager Rochelle Small-Toney has proposed shifting the vast majority of that money to pay for renovations at the existing Civic Center. From Lesley Conn&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/savannahnow.com\/news\/2012-09-25\/city-manager-asks-savannah-council-use-arenas-tax-funds-civic-center-fixes#.UGHnw7JlTK1\" target=\"_blank\">City Manager asks Savannah council to use arena&#8217;s tax funds for Civic Center fixes<\/a> in today&#8217;s SMN:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Savannah City Manager Rochelle Small-Toney is asking City Council to consider using most of the $19 million in SPLOST funds set aside for a new arena for extensive renovations of the Civic Center.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This facility is well beyond its life expectancy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>She explained it was inefficient to operate, and because of its obvious age, increasingly was losing bookings to newer venues. She added that without a significant investment, the arena \u00e2\u20ac\u0153most likely won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t last beyond five years.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Renovations were projected at $16.2 million. The proposal was put before council members near the end of the first day of a two-day financial overview workshop, and clearly surprised most council members.<\/p>\n<p>Neither Mayor Edna Jackson nor others were quick to embrace the concept, and some rejected it outright.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Even if the entire $16.2 million were spent on the arena and not in other areas of the Civic Center, it couldn&#8217;t address the arena&#8217;s fundamental inadequacies:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>insufficient capacity for many types of shows<\/li>\n<li>bad acoustics<\/li>\n<li>a rectangular design that literally leaves thousands of patrons having to sit with their heads turned<\/li>\n<li>cramped walkways and public spaces<\/li>\n<li>uneven steps<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_3782\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3782\" data-attachment-id=\"3782\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/screenshot_34-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Screenshot_34-e1348594655924.png?fit=400%2C317\" data-orig-size=\"400,317\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Screenshot_34\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;The Civic Center&#8217;s crappy website doesn&#8217;t even list upcoming events in chronological order.&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Screenshot_34-e1348594655924.png?fit=300%2C238\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Screenshot_34-e1348594655924.png?fit=400%2C317\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3782\" title=\"Screenshot_34\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Screenshot_34-e1348594655924.png?resize=400%2C317\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"317\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3782\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Civic Center&#8217;s crappy website doesn&#8217;t even list upcoming events in chronological order.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>The arena is not a lady who needs a good makeover as\u00c2\u00a0Joe Shearouse, director of Public Facilities, Events and Services, apparently said at yesterday&#8217;s retreat to discuss finances. It is a fundamentally inadequate facility that needs to be replaced.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And I suppose we could just throw up our hands, say that we can&#8217;t replace it for another 20 years or longer, and spend that $20 million on other things.<\/p>\n<p>But that&#8217;s likely political suicide: the odds of voters approving another round of SPLOST will fall dramatically if the city scraps its signature initiative used to sell the current SPLOST to voters.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of giving up on the idea of a new arena and deciding that we just won&#8217;t have a decent one for years, we need some folks to create a vision for one &#8212; and then see if that vision is shared by the majority of Savannahians.<\/p>\n<p>Ideally, this vision would be coming from the city manager&#8217;s office. I&#8217;m shocked that city officials seem<del datetime=\"2012-09-25T19:16:56+00:00\">s<\/del> prepared to throw in the towel on something that has been discussed for the last decade.<\/p>\n<p>So maybe the vision needs to come from the mayor and members of council &#8212; who seem to be pretty serious about the commitment made to voters. And maybe other economic development folks &#8212; like the Chamber and SEDA &#8212; should get in the game here too.<\/p>\n<p>At yesterday&#8217;s retreat, Small-Toney said that a new arena would cost $150 million. \u00c2\u00a0I don&#8217;t know where that number comes from. Comparable arenas have been built in recent years for less than $130 million &#8212; in some cases much less. Maybe she&#8217;s assuming inflation and construction years from now, but that high estimate simply seems a dodge.<\/p>\n<p>Consider how Evansville paid for its new $127.5 million <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefordcenter.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ford Center<\/a>: long-term bonds being paid through the existing food &amp; beverage tax, riverboat revenues, and a sort of tax allocation district (a TIF in this case).<\/p>\n<p>The city of Evansville and the metro area are both small than the city of Savannah and our metro area. Evansville also has dramatically less tourism than we do.<\/p>\n<p>How about someone with the full expertise working up a financing package for a new arena with the various components:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the existing $20 million<\/li>\n<li>some funding from the next SPLOST &#8212; $30 to $50 million, I&#8217;m thinking, would not be a political disaster in the next vote<\/li>\n<li>a TAD for the immediate area around the arena, depending of course on where it is built &#8212; approximately $20 million over a period of decades?<\/li>\n<li>a portion of the increased revenues from the hotel bed tax as new rooms are added to the city&#8217;s capacity &#8212; maybe $20 million over 20 years?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A few sources like those and we&#8217;re within clear range of paying for a new arena.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe the general population of the city and of the region as a whole don&#8217;t want a new arena. Maybe they&#8217;ll ultimately reject one as too expensive.<\/p>\n<p>But throwing in the towel right now &#8212; as the current city administration seems prepared to do &#8212; could be a terrible mistake for the city&#8217;s future.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"2\" style=\"float: none; margin:0px 0 0px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5595881567027133\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"4374909701\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s not a lot of vision down at City Hall right now. <\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2012\/09\/25\/a-new-arena-for-savannah-should-we-just-throw-in-the-towel\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[8],"tags":[719,638],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Screenshot_34-e1348594655924.png?fit=400%2C317","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1gN9R-Z1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3783"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}