Articles
Date: Summer 2002
Publication: Auditoria magazine
Author: David Greusel and Todd Voth, HOK Venue
By learning from their sports facility counterparts, operators of convention facilities can help improve their financial performance.
It's not exactly a secret than most publicly-owned convention facilities run an operating deficit. This is mainly because they usually operate as "loss leaders" to lure tourism revenue to cities, where the real economic benefit comes from hotel, restaurant and retail revenues (and the accompanying taxes) that conventioneers bring to a community.
Sport venues, by comparison, are often light years ahead of convention centers in finding ways to increase revenues. As a group, operators of stadiums and arenas are usually more successful at reaching into the pockets of patrons than convention center operators. Many of the strategies sports facility operators use to increase revenues above gate receipts can transfer to the convention center market.
This article can be found at the Auditoria website