Some MetroCentre facts to correct “Talk Show Callers From A Parallel Universe”

April 30th, 2009 at 09:40am Chuck Sweeny

Lots of myths on the radio these last few mornings  about the MetroCentre, from the usual stable of talk show callers. Unfortunately, the morning drive talk show hosts seldom if ever refute anything their callers say.

Perhaps they just don’t know their Metro Centre history. I do. I worked at City Hall when they built the thing.

First myth: “We voted against the MetroCentre being downtown, they put it there anyway.”

Variation on first myth: “We voted against it and they built it anyway.”

Facts: Rockfordians voted in 1967 against raising their property taxes to build a $10 million (that’s $65.3 million in 2009 dollars) civic centre on the east bank of the Rock River, where the Riverview Ice House is today.

The MetroCentre was built in 1979 and 1980 with about $16 million (or $49 million in 2009 dollars) of HORSE RACING TAX money collected on winnings at Arlington and other racing venues in Illinois.  No property taxes were used. The west side downtown site was used because the buildings there had been cleared with federal, urban renewal funds. So, the land became the local matching share of the state-funded project. Plus, the project was designed to revitalize downtown, which lost most of its retail stores when the brilliant administration of Ben Schleicher and all but 3 of the 20 aldermen voted to take out the city’s busy State and Main intersection and replace it with an open-air mall.

Late in the Metro planning process, Mayor Bob McGaw tried a  switcheroo, saying the building should be built out by I-90 and East State Street. But construction began downtown as planned. McGaw left office in April 1981.

Metro opened at the end of January 1980.

Myth 2: “Doug Logan knew how to run the MetroCentre. It made money when he was there.”
Fact: NO IT DID NOT! Logan and everyone else knew when they built it that the MetroCentre would not make money. Civic arenas never do. They’re a quality of life addition to a city,  like parks, bike paths, symphony orchestras and community festivals such as OTW.

Logan, a New Yorker with an awesome sense of humor, turned criticism of the MetroCentre on its head. Ccritics said the MetroCentre would always be in the red, so Logan had the building sheathed in red metal siding.

Critics also said the building was a white elephant. So, the MetroCentre’s first mascot was — a white elephant.

Until 2008, The MetroCentre  had a subsidy of about $900,000 a year, paid from the city’s redevelopment fund. Redirecting the subsidy to pay for the $23 million renovation and buying the Ice Hogs did not bring in sufficient new business to cancel out the need for that $900,000. I originally said in this post that “ending the subsidy was a mistake. But Ted Biondo then pointed out:

“The $900,000 subsidy did not end!  It was used to pay the $23M debt for the Metro Center and the hockey team, in addition to $460,000 from the county.  The subsidy currently stands at $1.4M and an additional subsidy of $900,000 would raise the total to almost $2.3M plus additional debts currently owed by the Metro Center.  $2.5 to $3.0M is the correct number for the subsidy.  It was not ended folks!”

The reason the MetroCentre offered a wide variety of entertainment in Logan’s years — The Rolling Stones, Roy Orbison are just two, interesting examples — was because Doug was trying to determine what Rockford wanted, and what Rockford would support.

Entry Filed under: talk show callers