Fayetteville?s Crown Coliseum has always been a high-priced venue in search of a market. Touted as a taxpayer-subsidized way to bring in big tourist dollars, the Crown Coliseum has instead become an annual money-suck. And according to a piece in today?s Fayetteville Observer, the subsidies have extended to direct cash payments to musical acts, stage shows, and other touring companies to, well, show up in town.
To help lure more acts, the county commissioners agreed last year to double to $300,000 the budget for sponsoring, or subsidizing, entertainment.
The premise for the increase, as Rick Reno, chief executive officer of the Crown Center explained last year, was it took money to make money.
Except, of course, that the place isn?t making money. It isn?t going to make money. The major acts will go to Raleigh, which clearly draws from the Fayetteville area and even beyond. That should have been obvious from the outset.
Perhaps the most distressing facet to the story is this stark fact, which no one in a position of authority in Cumberland County has sought to deny: they actually gave tax dollars to Sha Na Na to do a show at the Crown. That?s pathetic.
Get a job!
