Political Buzz - Archives for: May 2008, 06

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Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

Tacoma Dome wants $250K 'seed money' to become its own concert and event promoter

Posted by Jason Hagey @ 12:13:25 pm

The City Council is expected to vote soon on a request to loan the Tacoma Dome $250,000 to get started in the event promotion business.

With the Dome's small theater nearly finished, Deputy Director Rob Henson said it's time for Dome officials to go out and book their own -- primarily smaller -- events, bypassing promoters.

They need the money to get started. Any profits from shows would go back into the fund; any losses would come out of the fund. "You're going to win some and lose some," Henson told me. "At the end of the day, we believe we will win more than we lose."

In a memo to City Manager Eric Anderson, he wrote:

This will be a key part of our strategy to compete against other facilities in our market, namely the Paramount Theater, McCaw Hall, Everett Events Center and the new Kent arena that is projected to be operational in 2009. This will also give us the ability to fill the "dark days" on our calendar with revenue producing events.

Henson also told me he expects increased competition from Key Arena "with the Sonics leaving." "If I were Key Arena, I would be putting together a very aggressive plan to attract as much business as possible," he said.

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Categories: Tacoma

Political Buzz

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Niki Sullivan covers politics. Before coming to Tacoma, she covered state government in Oregon. She is a regular contributor to the GritCity blog. Email Niki

Peter Callaghan is a local columnist. He’s covered the statehouse and state politics since 1981. Before joining The News Tribune in 1985, the Stadium High grad worked for newspapers in Everett and Lewiston, Idaho, and for The Associated Press in Olympia and Seattle. Email Peter

Joe Turner has covered state government and transportation issues since 1990. Since the Bellarmine grad’s arrival in the newsroom in 1978, he’s covered police, suburban cities, Tacoma City Hall, Federal Way City Hall and the Pierce and King county governments. Email Joe

David Wickert covers Pierce County government. Before coming to The News Tribune in 1998, he covered local government for newspapers in Illinois, Virginia and Tennessee. Email David

Jason Hagey covers Tacoma city government. Before coming to The News Tribune in late 2000, he worked at newspapers in the Tri-Cities and Pendleton, Ore., covering city and county government, courts, crime and the occasional feature. Email Jason

Les Blumenthal has been covering Washington, D.C. for The News Tribune since 1990, focusing on issues and politicians involving the state. Before joining The News Tribune, he spent 13 years working for The Associated Press in Seattle, Illinois and Washington, D.C. Email Les

Hunter George is the local news editor who oversees coverage of state and county politics. Before coming to The News Tribune in 2001, he spent 11 years covering the statehouses in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Washington state for The Associated Press. Email Hunter

John Henrikson is a local news editor who oversees City of Tacoma and education coverage. He's worked as a journalist in the Northwest for 19 years, supervising coverage and reporting on local and state government, the environment and growth. Email John

Local politics links

• Chris Mulick's Olympia Dispatch
• Brad Shannon's Campaign Trail
• Postman on Politics
• Sound Politics
• Horse's Ass
• Richard Roesler's Eye on Olympia
• P-I's Strange Bedfellows