Jackson Free Press

City leaders fear that one day the USA International Ballet Competition could leave Jackson due to Thalia Mara Hall needing repairs that cost about $9 million. Only four cities in the world hold the elite dance event, and Jackson is the only one in the United States.

"We stand the risk of losing it to other cities," Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. told the Jackson City Council during its Jan. 24 meeting. He said other municipalities would jump at the chance to host IBC.

The council voted Jan. 24 to pay a Washington, D.C., firm to study the economic impact and need for a new or improved entertainment and sports venue in Jackson. Brailsford and Dunlavey will evaluate the feasibility of a sports arena and suggest the best size, cost and location of a new facility. They'll also schedule the first three months of events.

Mayor Johnson said that a group of private parties had raised $70,000 in pledges for a sports arena study in 2010. "They hit a snag," the mayor said. "I decided to take it over. We weren't able to get $70,000 in pledges." The city is still seeking private funds to help offset the costs.

The city is tying the possible sports arena to the future of Thalia Mara Hall. Brailsford and Dulavey's sports arena study will cost $109,000; an additional Thalia Mara Hall study will cost no more than $15,000. The firm will study the hall for the economic impact its improvements might have on Jackson's central business district.

Thalia Mara Hall has had improvements in recent years, including a new roof, new seats, a new orchestral shell and a new floor. It still needs $9 million of work, the mayor said.

"IBC is one of our biggest tourist venues," Councilman Quentin Whitwell said at the Jan. 24 City Council meeting. "Support of our arts is critical. We could spend a little to make a lot."

"What is this group going to tell us that we can't figure out for ourselves?" Councilman Chowke Lumumba said.

At the Jan. 23 work session, representatives from Brailsford and Dunlavey told the council how they would conduct the study. Jason Thompson, a senior associate with the firm, told the council that the initial step is a market study. Next would come a feasibility study, then an impact study. The final step is implementation, and Thompson said his firm would plan the first two or three months of events and operations. They will even develop a budget for a sports arena.

"This is not a cookie-cutter study," he said.

While the firm would coordinate the overall effort, it would also consult with Dale Partners Architects, a Jackson firm, and SOL Engineering, also based in Jackson. In addition, Brailsford and Dunlavey will work with Chicago-based CLK Consulting, a firm that specializes in operations and programming of sports events.

"We are not a major market," Councilman Tony Yarber said. "We don't have a major sports team."

"A sports team is definitely not necessary for a project like this," Thompson said. "A sports team takes up the best dates."

The firm would look at the demand of the Jackson market and make suggestions based on that, Thompson said. First, the firm would look at the possibility of having a sports tenant, possibly with a small semi-pro league. Then, the firm would look at touring shows, such as Disney on Ice, and determine if enough people in central Mississippi would pay to see that. Next comes high-school and college events.

"Some arenas have a college team tied to it," Thompson said.

Yarber wanted to know if Thompson meant that first thing to do is to bring in a sports tenant. Thompson said it depends.

"We are not here to push you," Thompson said. His firm will look at the market and see what Jackson can hold. When Council President Frank Bluntson asked him about the size of a sports arena, again Thompson said it depends on what the study shows about the market. He said he was hesitant to throw out a number, but that if he had to guess before doing the study, he thought Jackson might support a mid-size arena.

"But we still need to look at market," he told the council. "You don't want to underbuild or overbuild."

The firm is looking at possible sites in the downtown area bounded by Fortification Street, U.S. Highway 80, Gallatin Street and the Pearl River.

"We don't want to cannibalize what is already happening," Thompson said. "We will look at what is going on. Don't do this project at the expense of another. That's not the purpose."

At the Jan. 24 meeting, Lumumba was the only councilman to vote against the study. He suggested that Lake Hico might be a possible site for a larger sports complex to include ball fields.

Previous Commentsshow

The original push for an arena came after the Downtown Partners trip to Little Rock a few years back. (I was on that trip.) The idea was inspired in part by the Verizon Arena (it was Alltel Arena then), whose management told the group that they specifically avoid having much in the way of professional sports... the fundamental problem is that minor league teams are middling draws when they win and bad draws when the lose. Verizon Arena hosted an arena football team for 7-8 games the year we were there, I think, and that was it. (The idea was, I suppose, that arena football is exciting and novel enough that people might go even if their team isn't winning.) Instead, the idea is to avoid a major sports schedule so that you have dates open for Taylor Swift concerts, Paula Dean type stuff, the circus, festivals, tractor pulls or whatever. I'm not sure what the 2011 numbers were like, but Verizon Arena was having some trouble in 2009 and 2010 with losses, in part because they were about 10 years in and the arena needs updates and repairs, while some of the corporate pledges that the initial arena effort started had to be renegotiated. By and large it operated on thin margins according to the management, who seemed to run a pretty tight ship. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5248/is_28_27/ai_n55090273/ The question for Jackson is really whether an arena should be our next phase of development; it's sort a chicken-and-egg problem when it comes to the arena vs. big music acts and so on... are they not coming because the Coliseum sucks, but would come for a new arena? Or are they not coming regardless of the facility. Maybe a feasibility study can help with that determination.

Todd Stauffer

Jan 26 2012

Good points, Todd. I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but I don't think it is the current state of our Coliseum that is the problem. It's more that Jackson can't or won't support the events or artists that could or would come through. To produce a show of a Madonna, Maroon 5, Beyonce, JayZ, Kanye level crowd costs MILLIONS and the shows are quite amazing. But can enough Jackson and surrounding area people support that? Not really... I mean, I saw WAY back(80's) in the day when KISS came, Bon Jovi came, some others here and there. I saw an acoustic set with James Taylor in the late 90's... But overall, not that many huge acts come through Jackson anymore. Even if one of today's acts did come through? Do we have the people to support it? Would a Katy Perry or GaGa be boycotted and all over the news? Like when Marilyn Manson tried to come to town? Even the always questionable and annoyingly ever present in some form Chip Matthews manages to get better gigs at his ramshackle bars than the Coliseum. He got Snoop Dogg, Motley Crue, Vanilla Ice, Seether and others and those were the just events I bartended, not even going in the nasty bar part... Why? Well, IMO Jackson is geographically GREAT and centered for it's inhabitants to go to other cities and visit (3 hrs to Memphis-great shows, 3 hours to NOLA-great shows, 4 hours to Mobile-great shows), 3 hours to the coast-great shows). But Jackson is geograpically alone out here in Central MS. When I am in Raleigh, NC and they have HUGE acts coming though, the city also has Durham and Chapel Hill (roughly 3 Jacksons) all together and a pool of over 1.5 million folks to bring in. In Tampa, where I work... there are AMAZING acts coming through (But St. Pete and Clearwater are right here together-3 Jackson, all together) and there are over 1.3 million in the metropolitan area. Sooo, how is our little 300K gonna sell the tickets that pay the bills for those kinds of acts to come in? Arena football? In MS? Sports arena? We can't even keep a team. Our hockey team went away and our baseball team moved to Pearl. We don't have a professional team really... I mean, we can still function as a city when some of the biggest numbers and folks flood downtown and Fondren for JSU Stadium games. Our biggest drive is SEC, and that's only part of the year. What will fill the seats for the other part? Will my tax dollars, or my kids, or theirs be paying for this? I really DO want a good venue for music, for artists to come, for sports... and even for a circus or a tractor pull. But we have places "that'll do"... Can we not spend the money on things the city really needs? Like some water pipes, roads, and maybe even the ever-looming Fortification projects? Just some random musings on the subject...

Michael Kennedy

Jan 26 2012

Maybe we should put the money into fixing the roads and pipes and promoting what Jackson has that others don't. Any city can build an arena, not everyone can have our blues, local musicians, welcoming people and everything else in this week's BOJ issue.

lizwaibel

Jan 26 2012

Lizwaibel, I like that idea. It seems like it would be a lot more practical, and better use of urban space to take that money they have pledged and just fix up the coliseum (aka the arena we already have) than spend millions building a new one. Just my opinion, but I'd much rather see our downtown grow and promote small local music venues than some huge and unnecessary venue that might bring some big acts to town, but will largely go unused. Small venues can be rented out and have the potential to bring both money and people to Jackson a lot more consistently, than some huge act that comes to town every once and a while.

awelch1213

Jan 30 2012