County committee will take a tourism field trip, study other cities
Central Missouri Events Center Review Committee members are boarding a Mo-X bus to help save the Boone County Event Center— or at least they hope so. As community financial support has waned in recent months, the future of the center looks more and more like the center itself: gray and falling apart.
The committee is also seeking a new home for the Boone County Fair. After county commissioners gave a definitive “no” to a 2016 fair at the Boone County Events Center, the committee is hoping to discover another option. The events center initially closed at the beginning of the year.
The review committee will visit Independence, Missouri and Overland Park, Kansas to explore event spaces and learn about tourism practices in other towns, according Boone County Commissioner Dan Atwill.
Seven county stakeholders compose the committee: Atwill, Mayor Bob McDavid, former MU athletic director Mike Alden, Columbia school board president James Whitt, Commerce Bank regional president Teresa Maledy, former Governor Roger Wilson and former Mayor Anne McCollum.
After briefly reopening for the 2015 Boone County Fair last month, the events center has once again closed, as “significant capital improvements” need to be made, according to the Boone County website. These improvements include reroofing the main building, rewiring electrical hookups, and remodeling the bathrooms.
These improvements met a barrier when Boone County voters recently rejected a 1/8-cent sales tax for parks and recreation development. Following the tax’s failure, the center closed again.
Boone County has owned the building, and the surrounding 134 acre fairgrounds, since 1999. The county originally acquired the property with a vision of long-term use as growth and development spread, according to their website.
On the morning of August 10, the CMEC review committee will travel to the Independence Events Center, where they will meet with City Manager Ron Heacock. After touring the facility and public ice arena, the committee will also hear from Rick Kozuback, chairman of Global Entertainment, a company employed for project management of the Independence Events Center.
Following the Independence tour, the group will travel across the state border to visit the Overland Park Soccer Complex, the Deanna Rose Farmstead and the Blue Valley Baseball and Softball Complex. The committee will hear operational details and tips on hotel accommodations. They hope to apply principles from these successful tourism facilities to the embattled county fairgrounds.