It’s not a loser because critics say so: Just read the consultants’ own report.
The current convention center is a break-even operation thanks to the $1.7 million or so in Erie County bed tax revenue that covers the annual operating loss. The proposed new convention center would also lose money, with the loss subsidized by county revenues.
The average wage in the hospitality industry, for example, in serving clients of the convention center, is currently under $12 an hour, and not full-time, and without benefits such as health insurance, pension, or sick leave.
So when the guy from the Buffalo-area automobile dealers’ association says that he wishes he had more space to show his cars during the annual two-week Auto Show, he’s saying that he wants Erie County taxpayers to take 100 years’ worth of all the money we currently invest in the Zoo, the Philharmonic, the Science Museum, the Botanical Gardens, 19 theaters and about 50 other cultural organizations that the County funds annually to make life here nice.