A Statement from City of Evansville Mayoral Candidate Rick Davis regarding the City of Evansville’s Proposal to Hire a new company to manage the Downtown Arena.

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Rick Davis

Published without bias or editing

By: Rick Davis

Once again, a proposed recommendation directly affecting Evansville taxpayers — in addition to the future of Downtown Evansville — is being decided by a relatively unknown board consisting of appointed members, including one who does not even live in the Evansville area, and includes only one elected official. In the latest example, the Evansville Arena Management Committee — which has no direct accountability to the public and meets hidden from the public and without public input — has recommended that the City of Evansville hire a new, unheard of company to manage operations of the new Downtown Arena. This unheard of firm would also manage The Victory Theatre and will be in direct competition with SMG’s management of The Centre for already stretched downtown parking facilities and entertainment opportunities. The new Downtown Arena is a facility that has received an investment of $127.5 million in taxpayer dollars to be paid for by Downtown TIF money, food & beverage taxes and casino revenues. The Downtown Arena is a facility that is the centerpiece in the latest revitalization effort for Downtown Evansville. But only one of the members of the Evansville Arena Management Committee is an elected official, meaning a decision on the future of Downtown is being made behind closed doors by a body that has little or no accountability to the public. On Tuesday, after spirited hearings in an amazing expression of self restraint, the Evansville Redevelopment Commission voted to table a decision to hire the new firm so that elected officials from both the City and County can publicly discuss this important situation. It’s time we put more elected officials on all of these hidden boards, including the Evansville Redevelopment Commission, so that taxpayers can hold them openly accountable for the decisions that are supposedly being made on behalf of the public.

Worse yet, City leaders have largely declined input from the full membership of the County Council and County Commissioners in an open forum for an expression of ideas, while secretly attempting to hire a second management firm to handle the operations of the new arena for its entertainment facilities owned by taxpayers. In short, if this faulty decision stands, the City and County will now have two competing management companies working against each other for the downtown entertainment dollar at The Victory Theater, The Centre, and The Downtown Arena. It simply does not make good business sense to have City and County venues competing for an already challenged entertainment dollar in a market the size of Evansville. Coordination of booking all three sites is essential. I would ask that City administration sit down openly with all of the County representatives and come to an agreement to have one company handle all of the downtown entertainment venues in the City and County so that every taxpayer who has a stake in Downtown will benefit. With our investment of the Downtown Arena, Evansville and Vanderburgh County residents have too much at stake, particularly with declining tax revenues due to a troubled economy. We have to stretch every dollar to ensure the public is getting the best, coordinated entertainment value possible. Hiring two firms to do the job of one is simply a waste of taxpayer dollars and sets up an unnecessary competitive formula that works against good common sense. It should not be allowed or tolerated.

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6 COMMENTS

  1. First, I thought parking wasn’t going to be an issue when this thing was started.
    Second, The statement about being in direct competition is true but shouldn’t that be good? When one company has a monopoly on services- prices tend to go up.

  3. The county has nothing to do with the city’s decision. Did the county ask the city before they kept SMG. That would be a big NO. Davis needs to look at SMG’s record. His whole campaign is based ipon bashing Weinzapfel. Weinzapfel is not running..DUH.

  4. Of course competition is good, but I wouldn’t put two McDonald’s franchises next door to each other because I wanted to see them compete. As Davis says, were hiring two firms to do the job of one.

  5. competition may be well and good but there must be some coordination between the two entities to see that there is only one event scheduled at a time. Although the powers that be seem to think there is abundant parking, put 10,000 people down there and I believe you’ll find a different situation.

    Also having 2 different companys running the various entertainment venues, no matter who they are, will cause duplication of job functions and be more expensive in the long run.

    It would have been really nice for the city and the county to have worked together to pick a single provider last December before the county locked in SMG, removing the best option for choice.

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