More Good Money To Be Piled On The Boondoggle Bandwagon

Milwaukee convention center expansion to be included in strategic study

Expanding the Wisconsin Center convention hall will be included in a strategic plan the convention center’s owner will embark on later this year. 

The strategic plan will provide the Wisconsin Center District board with insights on all the district’s facilities, including the downtown Milwaukee convention hall, chairman Scott Neitzel said Thursday.

I've been writing about the misguided push for expansion of the convention center for years.

Beware Of The Economic Development Hucksters

Milwaukee's Boondoggle Twofer

The Convention Center Cabal

But, as experience has shown, the number of conventions and convention-goers has been falling the past few decades. With faltering demand already in place, increased supply drives the value down for everyone. A classic case of a race to the bottom. Maybe it's a good thing Milwaukee hasn't wasted hundreds of millions on pointless convention center expansion...

And, the numbers in the Business Journal article show that, even though we haven't expanded the convention center (which is deemed so necessary), hotel occupancy rates have improved. We've built more hotels and more of those rooms are being used even though Milwaukee hasn't upgraded the convention center. This increase in hotel room occupancy (from 58% in 2010 to 62% in 2015) has occurred alongside declining convention center events (from 78 events in 2014 to 53 in 2016). So, it may be more accurate to believe that investing dollars into the convention center would be a drain on other more effective economic activities in Milwaukee.

Hopefully we can pass on this round of corporate welfare. There are many other, more needed and more effective, investments our community can make.

[Aside: I will always find it amazing that unemployment, food stamps, aid to the poor and working-class, in general, are always frowned upon and those pulling the purse-strings are always looking to cut, cut, cut! Even investments in our infrastructure are put off into the future. But when billionaires come around with their hands out, looking for money, we're always scrambling and desperately looking for anyway possible to fork over millions of dollars, and more often than not, supported by dubious reasoning.]

Big League Broke

Over the past few years, here in Milwaukee, we've heard evermore rumblings regarding a new, or remodeled, basketball arena. The usual cast of characters has steadily increased their rhetoric. For them, the bottom line is that these arenas, stadia, etc. are economic engines. If your city wants to be "big league," every 20 to 25 years or so, the public must subsidize the remodeling of an existing arena or the building of a completely new arena.

Yet, Don Walker recently reported, Head of Wisconsin Center District Says It Has No Money For Arena. From the Wisconsin Center's website, "The Wisconsin Center District (WCD) is a government body created in 1994 to fund, build and operate the Delta Center in downtown Milwaukee, and continue operating the existing venues now called the U.S. Cellular Arena and Milwaukee Theatre."

I thought the boosters were claiming these convention centers and arenas were economic catalysts? How can these facilities be considered catalysts or game-changers if there isn't any money to show for them?

We're an important part of the economic fabric, business is booming ... nonetheless, we're broke.

Typical businesses have an accounting item called replacement reserves. It's just what it sounds like - a reserve of money to replace and fix things. It's an annual expense item, a reserve of money, just in case there are issues that need to be addressed to allow a continued income stream to the facility, building, etc.

Stadiums, and their ilk, seem to operate under the facade of being economic igniters, yet they have no money for repairs, nor do they have any (or hardly any) money for renovations. Wisconsin continually has pumped money into the Bradley Center, Miller Park and the rest of our white elephants. If you can't fund your own operations, you're not a game-changer, you're a charity case.

The cost to the public for these arenas does not support the return we receive on our investment. The public needs to get out of the business of being responsible for building the playing fields for professional sport teams.