High School Volleyball or Dixie Chicks? (22. March 2006, 08:26 by Derek Young) ~ Feeding The Debate
The state high school volleyball tournament has been bumped from the Tacoma Dome in favor of a yet unnamed act – believed to be the Dixie Chicks. It’s strictly a business decisions they say. Yes. The Dixie Chicks will bring in more money for the Dome. I have a feeling that state high school tournaments would bring in more money for the city in hotel beds and restaurant tabs, but I haven’t stared at any numbers to back that feeling up.
So this brings me back to the question I’ve asked before, what does the Tacoma Dome do for us? Why should we, the folks that haven’t been to the Dome in years pay for your upkeep? Don’t misunderstand me here. I am perfectly willing to support the Dome once I hear any fragment of an argument that actually effects me or the community in some way. Somehow I feel that getting the community into the Tacoma Dome for something like a high school sports event does more to promote our goodwill with the venue than a one-off concert. Merely my opinion.
“Sorry, you have to pay for your own renovations. Strictly a business decision.” Tacoma Dome Bond fading… again and again… and again (?).
Previously here, here, and here.
Link to the News Tribune
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If you turn the story around and say the Dixie Chicks asked a school to perform in their gym, do you think the school would cancel activities for the performance ( that would bring big crowds and big money to the school) or do you think they would tell the Chicks to take a hike?
1 | Posted by Jake | Mar 23, 12:55 AM
I guess I don’t understand the relevance of the high school gym scenario. In that case the high school controls both its facilities and its schedule. High school events would be bringing the same people into the facility every week that have always been there. Allowing the Dixie Chicks (apologies to them for being the example) into the gym would bring more people together and would be a win for the community and the school - ignoring the security issues, scary high school bathrooms, and general chaos.
In our real life scenario we have competing priorities for a single facility. Both groups would bring folks in from outside the area. The state volleyball tournament thought they had the dates because of some oral agreement (although having no written contract is really dumb) and it was bumped in favor of the Dixie Chicks. This would all be different if the Dome were looking at the two groups and there was no supposed agreement in place already. Concert and money or high school sports. They could choose the concert and the schools can find someplace else. Minus a contract this may make a good business decision for the dome. They may not have realized that the high school sports associations would react so strongly and are now talking about not coming back to Tacoma. What’s the value of the lost future events?
As a facility trying to get more public funding, and given that I do believe the high school volleyball tournament would bring more money into the surrounding community than a one-off concert, it’s an unfortunate precedent. If we are to believe this is a public space that we should support I would hope for more love for our more public events.
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