Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner said the city will not take over management of the Downtown Bloomington U. S. Cellular Coliseum. Renner said, "that needs to be in private hands."
Renner said he thought as recently as last Friday, the city and CIAM could work out an extension. "We had to insist on terms that better protected the city and taxpayers. We had performance benchmarks moving forward that were not in the contract before. While we were very, very clear and firm, I was optimistic through some of the communication we had on Friday that we were going to be able to work something out."
Renner said the city will begin an immediate search for a new arena manager. "If it goes past April 1st, we may ask CIAM to extend the current deal for 30 or 60 days, if that's something they would be willing to do."
Renner said a long-term outcome may be the development of a joint booking system with the city-owned Center for the Performing Arts. That option was one potential cost-saving measure developed last fall by a task force convened by Renner to examine ways to cut the city's structural budget deficit.
The Downtown Bloomington U.S. Cellular Coliseum will have different management this spring.
"After many meetings, it is clear that the city's view and concept of its relationship with the management company significantly differs from ours," explained John Butler, President of Central Illinois Arena Management, Inc. (CIAM). "The city rightfully wants accountability, but controls and oversight that inject the city into the day to day operation of the coliseum defeat the purpose of having a private management company."
In a news release sent via email today, Butler also said that under city conditions, the management company would essentially become a department of the city and that he was unwilling to continue on that basis.
"The games and shows will go on and the public will not notice a change is taking place," said Butler. In the next 10 weeks 30 event dates are scheduled at the coliseum.
The city owned 7,000 seat venue opened in 2006 at Madison and Front Streets. The city has expressed disappointment with the Coliseum's performance over the past few years. The coliseum is host to a hockey team, basketball team, indoor football squad, as well as several music concerts and special events. The venue has been losing money though, and recently suffered a 25% drop in attendance.
According to the news release from CIAM, the coliseum has drawn over three million patrons to downtown Bloomington generating an economic boost to the community exceeding one hundred and fifty million dollars.
The current management contract expires on April 1, 2016.
