The new car is in the shop already?
I heard a peculiar thing yesterday. I was told a part-time employee of the Events Center was recently informed that after the Paul Simon concert that the Events Center would be closed for the remainder of the summer for ‘repairs’.
Before I get my ‘conspiracy theories’ rolling I will say this from my experience of working at the Washington Pavilion’s performing arts hall, this isn’t all that uncommon for entertainment facilities.
I worked as a lead usher the first four years the Pavilion was open. We didn’t hold any entertainment events in the hall during the summer. Mostly because many touring acts either don’t tour during the summer or they do mostly outdoor venues. We also liked it as part-time staff because we got our summers off. The Pavilion would use the time to do light maintenance and ‘deep cleaning’ of the hall (clean seats, clean carpet, and make minor repairs to flooring, stage gear and seating). However, we were never told this was for major repairs.
There are some questions though. Is the honeymoon over with the Events Center? Notice we have many repeat acts already. Is there only so many sold-out shows we can do?
But the bigger question is the terminology ‘repairs’. I do know that some major renovation is being done at the Convention Center, but this is a facility that is as old as the Pavilion. So what is going on at the Events Center, a very NEW facility. Like I said, totally understand deep cleaning and regular maintenance, but if major repairs are already being done at the place, one wonders what is up. I joked when I first heard the revelation that it will probably take a few months to drain the water from the walls.
But will we ever know since the one time there seemed to be negligence by the builder (siding) the whole settlement became a secret that seems to be protected by state law (Still waiting for the Supreme Court to rule).
I’ve been asking around about the ‘repairs’ I will keep you posted. Too bad the buttrocker palace across the street isn’t still open to pick up the slack.
Maybe the John Morrell Arena could stand in as a replacement for the summer. I know it still stands proud and ready some 50+ years later….
The EC was built with inferior materials and substandard design. It cost 150 mil not including surrounding improvements (streets, water). Of this amount a few political types and developers secretly and illegally added millions to their net worth. When you build a 200 mil project with less than 125 mil, the shortcuts (siding, cheap steel/concrete) need to be brought up to standards later. The convention center was built at a time when politicians and developers were honest. Construction was superior if not overkill. It was designed to be expanded to the size of the new EC. There was plenty of parking. The population was proud and didn’t have to apologize to visitors for $10 hotdogs. The blame for this mega mistake is one man, Mike Huether. He came, lied, indebted, and overstated. I had a big ski boat once. The two best days was when I bought it and when I sold it. Huether’s businessman mayor became an Enron. The city has half a billion in debt that built built projects worth half in salvage value. Can we run him off before 2018?