MuskogeePhoenix.com, Muskogee, OK

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September 4, 2010

Civic Center needs events, our support

The value of the Muskogee Civic Center can’t be measured in profit.

“The civic center is a community supported facility, built to enhance the quality of a community,” Muskogee City Manager Greg Buckley says in today’s Sunday Extra. “It’s not set out to be a big profit generator or a money-maker for the city.”

According to city figures, the civic center often ends a fiscal year with a deficit.

If the norm is that community centers in towns the size of Muskogee don’t turn a profit — and based on today’s Sunday Extra, it is — then the focus should be on attracting more events.

But what should be done?

Dropping the price to rent the center to create more volume wouldn’t be fair to the private sector. The rates are competitive currently.

Other cities have many more events scheduled for their community centers:

• Ardmore’s Convention Center has hosted more than 230 events in the past year.

• Enid’s Cherokee Strip Conference Center hosted more than 400 events between Aug. 1, 2009, and June 30, 2010.

• Claremore’s Expo Center has 67 events scheduled in 2010.

Muskogee’s Civic Center lists 23 events for 2010.

Why is there such a huge dropoff in Muskogee?

Part of that lies on Muskogee citizens. Tickets for Carrie Underwood’s concert were readily available the day of her performance last fall. It was not a sellout.

Muskogee taxpayers spent more than $4 million renovating the Civic Center. It needs to be shown off, and we should be getting a better community return for the money we put into it.

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