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Tunica Convention Center the next logical step
by
DBJ
An alternative, addition to casino destinations The argument
for building a convention center in Tunica sooner than later
is bolstered as much by what is missed as by what is gained.
“Have we lost anything?” asked Webster Franklin.
“Yes,” the CEO of Tunica Convention & Visitors
Bureau answered within a breath of getting his initial question
out.
Take the nation’s state governors, for example. All
of them.
Franklin explained that the National Governors Association
2006 convention is out for bid now; each state’s governor
can nominate locations within his state for a convention
site.
Don’t look for Tunica on either the short list or
the long list of possible Mississippi sites to accommodate
50 governors and the thousands of people who would attend
the event.
“The governor chooses the place in the state and we’ve
been asked if we have the ability to hold the meeting,”
Franklin continued. “We had to turn them down.”
The main reason Tunica turned down even trying to be included
in a chance to bid on holding the prestigious event hinged
on one of the association’s main criteria: “We
can’t feed 2,000 people in the same facility where
there are simultaneously 10-12 breakout rooms,” Franklin
lamented.
During the two-week convention, four days of which actually
include attendance by the states’ governors, an intense
media presence ensures nationwide exposure for whatever
location is chosen.
“The economic impact would be in the millions of dollars.
The sheer media exposure is incalculable,” said Franklin.
While the Robinsonville area of Tunica County, where the
casinos are located, has the minimum 650 rooms available
for the five nights of the most intense attendance, those
rooms are in separate casino hotels and not in one facility.
“A convention center in Tunica is something we need
to study hard,” Franklin said. A convention center
in Tunica is, in fact, in the studying phase, said Gary
Copeland, Tunica County planner: “The area we’re
considering is Robinsonville, adjacent to Tunica National
Golf & Tennis Club.”
The new golf venue makes perfect sense as a location for
a convention center; Tunica’s nine casinos are all
within a few minutes drive of there.
Copeland explained that construction of a convention center
was one of the recommended components of a 1999 feasibility
study by Price Waterhouse Coopers: “It’s one
of the items they thought would enhance what we’re
doing,” Copeland said. What the county is doing is
trying to become a tourism destination that offers more
than gaming in casinos.
Besides the golf club, Tunica County recently opened its
RiverPark attraction that comprises a museum, Mississippi
River boat excursions and ecological touring. Copeland said
there are “not any active things going on in the county
to pursue it right now” but the potential for a convention
center “has generated a lot of interest” from
various entities, including private developers.
The 1999 study recommends a 220,000-square-foot center;
100,000 square feet of which would be space for events and
exhibitions. A hotel, with “proximate rooms,”
would be connected or adjacent to the center. Copeland said
it would cost the county $600,000-$800,000 per year to operate
the center but it could realize an annual profit of $12
million or more. Lynn Arnold, executive director and economic
developer for the Tunica Chamber of Commerce, and Copeland
agree that the convention center could eventually become
a public-private partnership development.
The $40-$50 million price tag is a bit steep for even Tunica
County, which is awash in gambling revenue, to go alone.
“I feel the county will build it because that is the
next step in becoming a major tourist destination,”
Arnold said. Copeland feels the center cannot become a reality
unless “we bring more people into the county and change
the demographics.” Two priorities “on the front
burner” are presently receiving more attention:
Health care issues and school improvement. For Franklin,
the convention center can’t get here fast enough.
Although he says he will be glad if the 2006 governor’s
convention lands in Mississippi - likely on the Gulf Coast,
if the state is chosen - a win in 2006 will likely preclude
the governors returning to the state anytime soon after
that. “The convention and tourism business is all
about bringing people to Mississippi who might not otherwise
come here,” he said. DBJ
