Show Me Center addition close to completion

Fifteen years after it opened, the Show Me Center finally is loosening its belt with a $1.5 million addition that gives it much needed space to store everything from tables and chairs to carpeting and Southeast Missouri State University's basketball floor.

The two-story addition also provides four additional ticket windows, new offices for men's and women's basketball coaches and a second-floor patio that will provide Show Me Center customers who smoke with a place to light up.

With the new patio in place, smoking won't be allowed in the Show Me Center, said David Ross, center director. "It could be the single biggest change," he said.

University and Cape Girardeau city officials will dedicate the new addition on Tuesday with a noon luncheon at the Show Me Center and a ribbon-cutting ceremony that also marks the 15th anniversary of the opening of the $13.5 million arena.

The addition has been under construction since January, with Kiefner Brothers of Cape Girardeau as the general contractor on the project. The construction firm also helped build the existing Show Me Center.

Some interior work left

Most of the construction work has been completed on the building which will have 5,000 square feet of storage space and 2,500 square feet of coaches' offices.

Some interior work remains to be done on the window-filled coaches offices including installing furniture.

Ross said the new storage space will be used beginning next week, but the coaches offices may not be occupied until early October.

For now, Ross and his 12 staff members continue to share cramped offices with men's and women's basketball coaches. In all, about 20 people share the office space tucked into a corner of the Show Me Center.

"We've been on top of each other," Ross said.

As part of the project, part of the existing 3,000-square-foot storage area has been turned into separate rooms, including an office for the custodians, a locked storage room to house the center's audiovisual equipment and a carpeted multipurpose room for receptions and feeding the traveling show crews when they roll into town.

Ross said the arena's custodians have been "nomads," shuffled around the building ever since it opened. Sometimes the loading dock has doubled as the custodians' office.

Ross said the Show Me Center has needed added storage for years. "If we had an Achilles heel, it was the storage, and we knew that early on," he said.

But he said efforts to add storage in past years never got off the drawing board.

While the public view of the Show Me Center is wrapped up in the basketball floor and the arena seating, storage space remains a critical part of the building.

The old storage area, dressed up with huge curtains, even hosted President Ronald Reagan for a private reception when he visited Cape Girardeau on Sept. 14, 1988. Receptions for Sesame Street characters also have been held in the storage room with equipment and supplies temporarily moved out of the way.

4.4 million people

But there's more than storage on Ross' mind these days. He's proud of the center's operation these past 15 years.

"We've had more than 4.4 million people walk through the doors," he said. The center has hosted over 6,000 events, everything from rock concerts to rodeos and university basketball games to hospital dinners.

Ross said the center has hosted 379 entertainment events, everything from country music concerts to professional wrestling. Over the years, the center has sold $12 million worth of tickets for entertainment events. That doesn't include university basketball games.

The center has hosted other gatherings as well.

"We have had weddings here," said Ross. "We used to have three churches meet here each week."

Through it all, the center -- operating on a $1.3 million a year budget -- has managed to do well financially. "We have operated in the black every year," Ross said.

That's in large part because the university pays rent for using the building for everything from basketball games to commencement ceremonies.

Most public arenas lose money, Ross said.

State and city money built the Show Me Center. The city contributed $5 million and the state kicked in $8.5 million.

The university and the city jointly operate the center, which is supervised by a six-member board appointed by the Cape City Council and the Board of Regents.

Charles "Bud" Leming has served on the board since its inception. He said the building would never have been built if it hadn't been for the success of the men's basketball team under then-coach Ron Shumate.

The team played in the small Houck Field House gym. The university wanted a larger arena for basketball and the city wanted a multipurpose center that would serve the entire community, Leming said.

Name was hardest part

Leming said naming the building may have been the board's hardest job. "There were people who said we ought to call it the Shoe Box after Ron Shumate," Leming recalled.

Other names included the SEMO Summit and the Diamond Center, the latter name based on the building's facade.

Ross, who has managed the building since it opened, said he suggested the Show Me Center, based on Missouri's identity as the Show Me State.

Some people didn't like the name. But Leming said it's perfect for the center.

"Frankly, if it hadn't been for the state of Missouri we never would have had the building,' he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123