Tulsa Vision 2025: September 2005 Archives

In this morning's Whirled we were treated to some numbers from John Scott, director of Tulsa's government-owned convention center, estimating the economic impact of the expansion of the convention center, to be funded by Vision 2025 money. The numbers were presented last month to the City Council. What his own numbers reveal, despite his efforts to spin to the contrary, is that the convention center is an extraordinarily bad investment.

The expanded convention center is expected to generate a $1,962,000 operating loss, on top of continued debt service of $1,752,000 a year for money borrowed to build the last convention center expansion in 1984. With rounding, that's an annual total loss of $3,714,000, and it has to be made up out of city tax dollars, dollars that could otherwise be going to pay police officers, keep swimming pools open, and keep potholes filled.

Scott told the councilors not to fixate on the bottom line:

"I know business people focus on the bottom line," Scott said. "And we share concerns on the operating losses . . . but we feel that is more than made up by the overall economic impact benefit the convention center brings to the community.

"Wouldn't any business want to spend $3.7 million to get $43 million?" he asked.

Human bones have been found during excavation at the site of the downtown Tulsa sports arena. According to KOTV:

Authorities say it's no surprise the bones were found since authorities knew a cemetery dating to the 1800s had existed on the site.

Who are these authorities? And haven't they seen "Poltergeist"?

(Hat tip to MeeCiteeWurkor. A commenter on that entry notes that the Louisiana Superdome was also built on the site of an old cemetery.)