SHOW ME CENTER IS ASSET

David Ross, director of the Show Me Center, last week candidly admitted the facility is struggling to break even financially. The center lost money in 1995, finishing the fiscal year about $15,000 in the red. Ross said his staff is "at a point where we're watching nickels and dimes" to balance the books.

And the new fiscal year isn't starting out much better. No longer a new arena, repair and maintenance costs are increasing. But that is only part of the problem. Three concerts were canceled in the first six months of the new fiscal year. Another concert was poorly attended, and in December a snowstorm cut into last-minute ticket sales for "The Nutcracker" ballet.

Ideally, the Show Me Center will continue to operate as a self-sufficient events center. But the facility's value to the community can't be measured simply between the lines of a ledger book.

Since opening in 1987, the center has drawn more than 2.6 million spectators to concerts, rodeos, ballet, truck pulls and sporting events. Each year, such events draw 300,000 to 400,000 fans. In turn, those spectators spend money in the community, pumping millions of dollars into the local economy. But beyond the spectator events held at the Show Me Center, the 7,200-seat arena is an excellent facility for conventions and meetings -- about 500 are held there annually.

Some people mistakenly think the center need only book more popular bands or events to pack the center. But most of the money in ticket sales for such events goes to promoters and performers. Only about 10 percent of every dollar in ticket sales goes to the Show Me Center.

Many of the top-draw singers and bands are too expensive for an arena the size of the Show Me Center. A better bet is for the staff to continue booking events like the recent Sports Show, which attracted about 10,000 people.

The Show Me Center's glory days of bands and singers performing to sold-out crowds might be over. But the arena continues to be an extraordinary asset to the community and the region.