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Post by matunuck on Mar 19, 2019 12:54:52 GMT -5
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Post by rf1 on Mar 19, 2019 14:28:12 GMT -5
I predicted this in another thread months ago. The DCU Center was looking ragged when I was there in December to see the URI-Holy Cross game. I opined (see Dec 10 post below) that it would not compare well with a brand new ballpark and it would require additional public funding support for renovations. These DCU Center renovations are to be paid for by a special tax on the nearby businesses. Looks like Worcester and the state are now (unlike Holy Cross) firmly in the entertainment business with some $140M in public tax money going downtown to this sector. I guess city leaders feel its schools and bus service are not critical needs that should be addressed. They seem to be ok with the prospect of poorly educated area residents walking to the menial low paying jobs these entertainment venues will provide.
Link to 12/10/18 post about DCU Center Renovations:
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Post by longsuffering on Mar 20, 2019 7:38:24 GMT -5
You were prescient sir. HC Professor Mathewson was one of two HC Profs who wrote T&G columns expressing concern about the public funding of Polar Park, while the city paid the more famous Professor Zimbalist of Smith as a consultant and he endorsed the expenditure.
The article mentions the 2005 NCAA BB tournament weekend, but not HC's role as host school. The event involved significant planning work and I was told at the time that Associate AD Rosemary Shea and Assistant AD Frank Mastrandrea worked tirelessly for months and did an excellent job representing Holy Cross.
Regarding the whole Arena/convention center arms race, my concern is this:
Mr. Smith, do you want to spend $3,000 to travel to Worcester for a three day convention and pump up the local economy?
Mr. Smith: Nah, I've got everything I need on the internet. I'm good.
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Post by Tom on Mar 20, 2019 11:33:18 GMT -5
The article mentions the 2005 NCAA BB tournament weekend, but not HC's role as host school. The event involved significant planning work and I was told at the time that Associate AD Rosemary Shea and Assistant AD Frank Mastrandrea worked tirelessly for months and did an excellent job representing Holy Cross. They did a nice job, but the athletic department was spread pretty thin for the event. Guys were playing in the NIT and girls in the NCAA at the same the tourney was going on here HC had to provide coverage for all three events. HC also hosted in 1992 |
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Post by alum on Mar 20, 2019 11:55:54 GMT -5
You were prescient sir. HC Professor Mathewson was one of two HC Profs who wrote T&G columns expressing concern about the public funding of Polar Park, while the city paid the more famous Professor Zimbalist of Smith as a consultant and he endorsed the expenditure. The article mentions the 2005 NCAA BB tournament weekend, but not HC's role as host school. The event involved significant planning work and I was told at the time that Associate AD Rosemary Shea and Assistant AD Frank Mastrandrea worked tirelessly for months and did an excellent job representing Holy Cross. Regarding the whole Arena/convention center arms race, my concern is this:
Mr. Smith, do you want to spend $3,000 to travel to Worcester for a three day convention and pump up the local economy?
Mr. Smith: Nah, I've got everything I need on the internet. I'm good.I wondered the same thing when the Convention Center opened in Hartford several years ago. (The conversation I imagined was: "Honey, should we travel from Minneapolis to New Orleans for the big convention this February? No, let's wait and go next year to Hartford. I hear the Mark Twain House is nice.") See this link for the type of events that are hosted. They are mostly regional. I am sure many don't even generate a hotel stay. You can't complain about people who are coming and spending money, but you ought not get too excited about it. www.ctconventions.com/events/ |
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Post by rf1 on Mar 20, 2019 15:24:54 GMT -5
The convention center in Worcester is never going to get much more than regional events that people drive to. National events are not coming to a city without a real airport and scarcity of hotel rooms. A city centrally located in New England can however draw the regional events that people will drive to.
The RI Convention Center like Hartford, Worcester, and Springfield is also mostly booked with regional events but does on occasion get some that are national and bring in large numbers of people from outside New England. It's convention center is connected to the Dunkin Donuts Center, Omni Hotel, and Providence Place Mall. You can basically walk indoors from across the street from the RI Statehouse all the way to the DDC which helps during inclement and cold weather. Providence is however viewed as more of a tourist/travel destination than other NE second tier cities. It also has the advantage of a nearby airport with direct rail service to downtown and a large number of hotel rooms. Two new downtown hotels with 300 rooms will open this spring bringing the downtown Providence room total to over 2,800 split amongst fourteen different hotels. The city supposedly has a very high occupancy rate which has spurred new hotel construction with several more in the pipeline. In addition to conventions, the colleges (especially Brown) and events such as Waterfire help drive visits. While the RICC has its fair share of events, it along with the connected DDC which is managed by the same public authority do not generate enough revenue to cover their construction and operation costs. The state of RI still supports them with huge annual subsidies. My guess is that this is also the case with Worcester, Hartford, and Springfield. The argument for doing this per the politicians is for all the indirect revenues that they supposedly generate but can't be accurately forecast nor definitively determined.
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Post by timholycross on Mar 20, 2019 15:26:43 GMT -5
One thing that has to hurt Worcester is that many of the casinos came with (or they built later) some kind of concert/sports venue. Made for a big increase in the number of competitors; and one might say there's a bit more to do there than in The Woo.
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Post by longsuffering on Mar 28, 2019 0:08:09 GMT -5
One thing that has to hurt Worcester is that many of the casinos came with (or they built later) some kind of concert/sports venue. Made for a big increase in the number of competitors; and one might say there's a bit more to do there than in The Woo. Yes, Mohegan Sun Arena can outbid the DCU for things like the Hall of Fame Tip off Tournament this past season, and Twin River and Foxwoods can outbid Worcester venues for MMA and boxing events, with the new Mass. casinos only exasperating that. But being able to add a Triple A baseball game in a brand new ballpark within walking or shuttle distance to a convention proposal can only help Worcester's competitiveness. But worth over a hundred million in funding? Not really. |
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