Trade center, Global Spectrum to split

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“Bull” hangs upside down from the basket during the Harlem Globetrotter’s game at the trade center in March. Dalton and Whitfield County will be taking over management of the facility. (Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen)

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August 23, 2012

Trade center, Global Spectrum to split

City/county to run facility again

Charles Oliver charlesoliver@daltoncitizen.com The Dalton Daily Citizen Thu Aug 23, 2012, 09:04 AM EDT

The Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center Authority board will end its management contract with Global Spectrum after four years.

“We just thought that the time was right for the trade center to go in a different direction,” said Dan Rogers, trade center authority chairman. “We plan to take it in-house, and we will put a transition committee in place to work with Global Spectrum make sure the transition is a smooth one.”

Board members unanimously voted to end its contract with Global Spectrum, effective at the end of this year, during their monthly meeting Wednesday.

Rogers doesn’t believe existing contracts or events will be affected by the change.

“We have established a transition committee to work closely with Global Spectrum to ensure that current and potential clients are not impacted in any way,” Rogers said.

Rogers said the transition committee will look at staffing needs of the facility. The trade center currently has 12 full-time employees.

Board members signed a five-year contract with Global Spectrum, a Philadelphia-based firm that manages approximately 75 convention centers, arenas and stadiums around the nation, in 2008. That agreement gave the authority the option to cancel the contract at the end of 2011. Instead, last year the board and Global Spectrum agreed to extend the contract through the end of 2012, with an option to extend the contract through the end of 2013.

Rogers said the board had until the end of this month to decide whether to exercise that option and chose not to.

Global Spectrum’s management fee was $9,000 a month in 2011 and 2012. That would have increased to $10,000 a month in 2013 if the board had picked up its option.

Built 21 years ago, the trade center is jointly owned by the city and county, and the legislation that created it mandates both governments cover its operating deficit equally, which is projected to be some $950,000 this year.

The trade center was run as a Dalton city department until 2002, with the city covering the first $250,000 of any shortfalls, and the trade center authority was an advisory panel. In that year, the Dalton City Council and the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners gave the authority responsibility for managing the trade center, in part to help rein in its large operating deficits.

The Board of Commissioners and the City Council are discussing a plan for the county to cede its share of ownership and financial responsibility for the trade center to the city as part of their negotiations on how Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) revenue will be split over the next decade.

“That wasn’t the deciding factor, but it would have been unfair to ask Global Spectrum to continue managing the trade center with that sort of uncertainty out there,” said Dalton City Council member Gary Crews, who is also a member of the trade center board.

The trade center set a record for attendance at its events in 2011, with 159,000 people passing through its doors.

Data provided by the trade center show total attendance at all events held there through May of this year was 58,668. By comparison, total attendance in the same period in 2011 was 56,290 and in 2010 was 48,638.

“We’ve really enjoyed our relationship with the board, the city and the county. We have been glad to have made the positive impact we have had over the past four years that we have been here,” trade center General Manager Shashank Gairola said. “We have agreed to assist with the transition plan and any needs the board may have. We are leaving the venue with the best calendar year that it has probably ever had, and we are proud of that.”

Global Spectrum Senior Vice President Frank E. Russo Jr. said the board’s decision was disappointing but not totally unexpected.

“Given the economic situation and the unemployment (in the Dalton area), it has been difficult to get some traction,” he said.

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Trade center, Global Spectrum to split

City/county to run facility again

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