SHOW ME CENTER EVENTS ATTRACT NEARLY 300,000 PEOPLE IN 1995

Nearly 300,000 people attended events at Cape Girardeau's Show Me Center in 1995. They saw events ranging from Sesame Street Live to the St. Louis Ballet

In the eight years the center has been open, more than 2 million people have passed through the doors.

The arena, when built, was a joint venture of Cape Girardeau and Southeast Missouri State University. Today, the university operates the Show Me Center and has a sizable investment in it.

The Show Me Center receives the equivalent of $215,000 annually from the university in the form of seven custodial and maintenance employees.

In return, the university gets 40 days free use of the center for basketball games, commencement exercises and other events.

Above that level, the university is charged rent like everybody else.

The center has an administrative staff of seven, but the administrative staff salaries are paid from revenue generated by the center.

The center operates as an auxiliary service of the university and is expected to bring in enough revenue to be self-supporting.

Director David Ross said the 7,200-seat arena has done well to come as close as it has to breaking even, as civic arenas nationwide have difficulty generating profits. It costs nearly $950,000 a year to operate the Show Me Center.

The center handles about 500 events annually, which includes gatherings held in its meeting rooms. In fact, the center often has several meetings going on simultaneously.

"We are actually running more events, but we are doing less entertainment," Ross said.

Many singers and bands are too expensive for an arena the size of the Show Me Center. Plus, Ross said, most of the money in ticket sales goes to the promoters and performers. The center gets only about 10 cents of every dollar in ticket sales.

So the center staff has focused instead on cultivating stable events, such as the Longhorn Rodeo, which returns to Cape Girardeau annually in February.

Show Me Center Events for 1995

The Harlem Globetrotters

Sesame Street Live

Disney on Ice

Brooks and Dunn

The Saint Louis Ballet

Sawyer Brown

Kenny Rogers

Longhorn World Championship Rodeo

Jesus Christ Superstar

K103/KZIM Old Milwaukee Sports Show

Mayor's Prayer Breakfast

Cancer Society's Annual Gala

Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's Annual Industry dinners

KBSI Indoor Invitational

Southeast Missouri Home Builders Association Home and Garden Show

KFVS Motorama

University High Basketball Tournament

Lowell Lundstrom Ministries

KFVS Women's Show

Christmas Craft Bazaar

All Southeast men and women's varsity basketball home games

Cap'n Crunch and NIT gymnastics meets

Summer basketball camps

Summer band camps

MDA Telethon

Zonta Fashion Show