Opinion: Let's not forget what ShoWare did bring to Kent: 350,000 visitors
By BARBARA SMITH
Kent Reporter Contributor
February 9, 2010 · 12:14 PM
I read your article in the Kent Reporter about how much money was lost by ShoWare Event Center in 2009 and wanted to share some additional information that isn’t usually thought about.
An event center or conference center rarely will make money the first year. Why? Who is going to book their conference or concert in a building that isn’t finished yet? It is more common that deadlines for completing a construction project as big as ShoWare’s would run behind schedule, not ahead of the completion date. Also, when you are planning conferences, you are usually looking at two years ahead, so many conferences would have already been booked well before 2009.
Also, the events that ShoWare Event Center hosted in 2009 caused 350,000 people to come to Kent. If those 350,000 had not come, how many of our businesses would have survived without them? Our ShoWare Center is more than just a place to host activities and events; it brings people to Kent and they spend money in Kent by overnight stays, dining and shopping, etc, thereby creating revenue which is difficult to measure.
Contact Kent Reporter Contributor Barbara Smith at kdp@kentdowntown.org or 253-813-6976.Comment on this story.
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