AMERICAS – The Finance and Commerce website reports Minneapolis Convention Center (MCC) is to lay off a dozen supervisors and place 23 of its 44 full-time events staff on a ‘call-in-as-needed’ status.
The Center claims to earn US$180m in extra economic activity for the city each year, but is suffering cutbacks in its basic city of Minneapolis funding.
The city-owned centre uses about $12m a year in funds from local sales, lodging, liquor and entertainment taxes to help pay for operations and the target is to reduce that to $8m by 2015.
Executive Director Jeff Johnson said the new target would be more in line with the funding of convention centres in comparable Midwestern cities such as Indianapolis and Kansas City.
Debate raged for many years in Minneapolis over whether another hotel was needed to boost the convention centre.
Convention bureau MeetMinneapolis has said: “A convention hotel is desired by meeting planners to accommodate their largest meetings, and as such, would be an advantage for the city.”
There are 2,000 hotel rooms within a two-block radius of the Minneapolis Convention Center, while the competitor Mid-Western cities averages 4,000.
Bookings for the MCC are down for 2012, and revenue is expected to decline as a result.
While Minneapolis cuts staff, Las Vegas, New Orleans and Chicago have cut convention charges to boost business post-recession.
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