Add another vote in the “for-profit” column after seeing the public political jousting currently occurring in Nashville. Construction has yet to commence on their fabulous new Convention Center and Butch Spyridon and his team have already booked 23 future conventions. But, that’s not good enough for Metro Councilman Jim Gotto, who wants to see every contract to see what each group is paying.
Apparently, Gotto thinks that some groups are getting “deals” and, thus, the Center won’t be profitable. As if he is an expert in such things.
But, dammit, he wants to see those contracts, saying “I want the numbers and I won’t give up until I get them.” On the other side, Butch contends, "there are things you do to sell that don't warrant laying it out for everybody to look at."
And Butch is absolutely correct. I’m fairly certain that Councilman Gotto wasn’t as transparent with the deals he cut when he worked in the private sector as he expects the CVB to be. And, I’m also fairly certain that if he saw a deal that was cut for one group and not another, he’d cry foul...never considering the ancillary impacts that might have caused such a deal to be made.
Those outside the destination sales and marketing world don’t understand why a DMO might cover parking or pick-up the tab for an opening reception for one and not another. For them, it’s all about being fair. But when a major convention could generate 6,000 room nights at a time when occupancy is below 50%, you do what you have to do to seal the deal. When a meeting will generate 400 room nights....umm, not so much.
It’s unfortunate that many of the same people who decry deals in the meetings and convention world don’t seem to have the same issues with TIF schemes and developer kick-backs for more traditional economic development initiatives. If giving preferential treatment to developers in order to land a major project is OK...why is it not acceptable in our world?
This would all be so much easier if government were not involved. Does the utilization of Room Tax make our jobs so much harder than they need to be?
Just a thought.