Plans for Show Me Center renovation move forward

Given the go-ahead by the Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents, university officials plan to ask for proposals from consultants in the next couple of weeks to update the Show Me Center.

Opened in 1987, the center is home to Southeast's Division I men's and women's sports teams, but it also serves as a venue for everything from monster truck and car shows to big-name concerts, private events and meetings.

But with nearly 1 million people coming through the doors the last five years alone and the variety of events the center hosts, some of its main components have outlived their life span. Examples are the retractable seating, center-hung scoreboard, sound system and roof.

At its Feb. 28 meeting, the board authorized the Facilities Management department to contract for engineering and specialized consulting services "to take a look at some of the infrastructure needs of the building to give us a better idea of scope, cost and also time frame that it might take to do some of these renovations," vice president for finance and administration Kathy Mangels said.

Mangels said information from those consultants probably will be presented to the regents at their June board meeting.

New speakers and lights could possibly be upgraded at the Show Me Center. (Laura Simon)

According to preliminary estimates in background material from the Feb. 28 meeting, upgrades to the 7,000-seat facility would run $7.44 million. Mangels and Show Me Center director Wil Gorman note the building itself is very sound structurally, but just needs updating.

"I think it was received very well," Mangels said of the Feb. 28 proposal. "They [the regents] understood the need; they've obviously realized the activity in the building and the age of it, so ... they were very supportive of moving forward with determining what the needs are so they as a board can prioritize that with other needs ... on campus."

Over the years, Mangels said, the university has been retrofitting everything from the seats to a computer to work the scoreboard lights.

The university will probably use a couple of different consultants on the project to tackle specialized projects, a prime example of which is the retractable seating, which features four different sections that are divided into sections on the north, south, east and west, Gorman said.

The longest pieces move together and have 11 or 12 motors under them that pull them back and forth, Gorman said.

"What can happen over time is these motors can fail," Gorman said. "Issues can occur, and if one motor fails there's no notification that this motor failed. The other motors pick up the slack. The problem is when two motors go out" then it can twist and lock up, so nothing moves in or out.

The retractable seats, which total just fewer than 4,000, are moved in and out according to incoming events. The seats are 17 inches wide, and there are no handrails down the seating aisles.

"We're a 24-7 operation a lot of times, so a lot of this movement is happening overnight to get ready for the next event, for the next day," Gorman said.

Another priority is the scoreboard, which uses outdated technology.

Other considerations are:

* Lighting upgrades. Mangels said one of the photos shown to regents showed a series of switches inside a closet where "you manually control turning lights on and off. That's both interior and exterior.

" ... It's not like the controlled dusk-to-dawn lights where you've got the energy efficiency and you know they're always going [to go] on and off. It's actually still manually controlled, still incandescent," Mangels said. If for example, a team is coming back after a road trip, someone has to remember to flip the parking lot lights on so the squad doesn't return in the dark, she said.

* The sound system, which Gorman and Mangels said is meant for voice, not music.

* The roof, which is more than 22 years old, is part metal and part membrane material. Mangels said some warranty work was done on it about five years after the center opened. Some of the metal roofing is starting to rust, allowing water to come in through the ceiling.

"We're seeing areas where we're starting to have some water infiltration," Mangels said.

* Restrooms. The Show Me Center's stall sizes and fixtures are from 27 years ago.

* Load capacity of the building's steel, from which speakers and various components of traveling shows are hung. Recent shows, like Trans-Siberian Orchestra and The Band Perry, had to scale back on equipment they brought with them because the Show Me Center couldn't accommodate the load.

" ... There are certain shows that we would love to bring to the area, but it limits some of those," Mangels said.

* Meeting rooms are also on the list for updating. Mangels said the rooms don't have fixed equipment for presentation technology, so if someone is holding a gathering, a portable projector and screen has to be brought in each time, which also limits floor space.

A venture of the university, city and state, Mangels said the center has been a "great investment and has served not just the university but the region very well in terms of the types of activities that we bring through and operating as a true multiuse facility. It's just that because of its age, it's time that we have to maintain it so we can continue to operate [it], not only for the university but for the region."

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-3639

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