Coliseum's future uncertain
Alabama Agricultural Center executive director Bill Johnson, left, and Billy Powell, executive director of the Southeastern Livestock Exposition, take a look at Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery on Saturday. The SLE rodeo wrapped up at Garrett on Saturday. (Mickey Welsh)
Garrett Coliseum executive director Bill Johnson sounds as if he's writing the obituary for the grand old lady as he discusses the often mentioned but never utilized architectural dreams for renovation.
"Our prayers have been for years that we would be in renovation soon," Johnson said. "All of a sudden, that has changed to desperation to keep the building open."
This time, his dire predictions may ring true. Gov. Robert Bentley has made it clear that tough budget cuts are on the horizon and that includes Garrett Coliseum.
In 1998, the antiquated facility received appropriations of approximately $650,000, according to Johnson. While that doesn't begin to cover the cost of any renovations, it was enough to provide for the minor repairs that constantly crop up with a large facility of that age.
Thirteen years later, the appropriations are at $400,000. When the seven-member staff needs to do any work on the property surrounding the arena, they usually bring the tools from home.
"I can't imagine there's anybody that has gotten along as long as we have with as little as we have and kept the doors open," Johnson said.
Next year, Bentley has allocated nothing, cutting Garrett Coliseum from the budget.
"That's correct," said John McMillan, commissioner of the Department of Agriculture and Industries and a member of the Alabama Agricultural Center Board which oversees the coliseum. "Frankly, I've been so preoccupied with all of the other problems I've got at the Department of Agriculture and Industries and Governor Bentley is appointing four members to the board out here. So we're just waiting to get the appointees and we'll start over looking at what our options are and try and figure out if there's a way to work with other government entities in the tri-county area."
McMillan said he has toured the facility twice in the last year and added, "I know what a desperate situation it is in as far as some sort of refurbishing."
The electrical wiring, the plumbing and the heating are original, dating from the early 1950s. Each has unique problems that all require attention. The electrical wiring is controlled through a badly outdated transformer located within the coliseum. If, or when, it malfunctions, a new transformer installed outdoors would leave the coliseum without power for at least 16 weeks.
The plumbing is deteriorating, which isn't surprising for 60-year-old pipes. The heating, facing similar issues, is barely adequate on most winter evenings and certainly isn't energy efficient. The roof leaks at the front of the coliseum where the box office is located and the last major work on the facility came in 1986 when workers placed a new roof on three sections of the facility. Guaranteed for 20 years, it is now in its 26th year.
"We're constantly working on something," said Johnson, the director for the last 20 years. "Now, we're getting to the point where we don't have any money to work on anything. We've done whatever it has taken to keep the place going, but you finally get to the point where you just run out of Band-Aids and duct tape.
"This is like our home," he said, "and it just kills us not to be able to keep it up."
Last year, the Legislature passed House Bill 663, which provides a minimum annual appropriation of $800,000 to the Alabama Agricultural Center Board as long as a renovation plan of at least $30 million is in place.
House Bill 663 is likely to be a hot topic of conversation whenever the Bentley appointees take their place on the Alabama Agricultural Center Board.
"We're going to push forward," said Reed Ingram, vice chairman of the Montgomery County Commission and a member of the Agricultural Center Board. "We're going to try and get private money. It's something we can't let go any longer. It's to the point we don't know how much longer we can continue (in the present situation) with the coliseum. We can't let it go even though we're in a revenue crunch because of the revenue it brings into the city."
When told Bentley had failed to appropriate any money for the coliseum next year, Ingram said he believed McMillan's friendship with Bentley would get that number changed.
"Commissioner McMillan will work on that," Ingram said. "If that's true, then we'll close. We can't operate on what little money we've got. It would have to shut its doors."
The Agricultural Center Board has entertained ideas to hand over control of the coliseum to a private corporation in the past. Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange, who recently did the same thing with the city's golf courses, said the time may have come to allow a private firm to run the coliseum.
"Obviously, it's a good attraction but with the state it's in, we're getting less and less out of it," Strange said. "It's a state-owned facility and we want to support it, but at the end of the day we can't take over farmers markets and coliseums.
"If they're not going to fund it, it seems they ought to let the private sector take over."
Strange, a former member of the County Commission who has followed the financial struggles of the coliseum in recent years, said the Agricultural Center Board was hesitant to hand the coliseum over to a private firm, likely because "it has to do with giving up control." One way to raise additional funds, he said, is to put a $1 surcharge on every ticket sold.
"If they have 700,000-plus people coming to events every year, just going up a dollar on every ticket, that's $700,000," he said.
Johnson said the staff is committed to providing excellent service to each event, hoping that will offset the antiquated facilities. He's not sure events such as the rodeo and the Alabama National Fair, already fighting an economy that has led to declining attendance, can afford a surcharge.
"If you charged the rodeo and the fair for every little thing, they couldn't afford to come here," he said. "The people who come here, they go out and spend money in the community. People who spend the night here, they're going to go to restaurants, they're going to spend the night, they're going to go to the stores, they're going to buy fuel. It all goes into the (local) economy, but we don't get much of that back, if anything."
Maintenance costs, meanwhile, keep rising. When a tractor's clutch went out recently, the coliseum staff just pulled parts from that tractor to make overdue repairs to others in an effort to provide maintenance on the property. When events such as the rodeo or fair need help to set up the arena, inmate labor is provided by the Department of Corrections. Three years ago, that labor cost $3 per man per day. Now, it's up to $15 per man.
A 2009 study to renovate the coliseum sits near Johnson's desk. That study included a $60 million renovation based on similar facilities in Perry, Ga., and Jackson, Miss.
The scaled-back $30 million renovation now discussed is for the coliseum and doesn't take into account the barns and exhibit buildings located on the property.
"I want to put it on the fast track to get private money, along with their (state) money," Ingram said. "It's doable if we were able to get someone to manage it. Lease it for 10 years, 20 years. We need to do something creative, out of the box. There's too much history, too much revenue (for the local economy) and it's too valuable a learning tool for our children (with events such as the rodeo) to let it go."
Groundbreaking for Garrett Coliseum took place on Aug. 31, 1948, and the dedication of the $1.5 million facility took place in October 1953. Even before the building was completed, it held its first major event, playing host to a concert featuring Hank Williams Sr.
Since then, the 118-acre complex has welcomed more than 25,000,000 visitors, including those who came for Southeastern Conference basketball and track events as well as sold-out concerts featuring Elvis, the Commodores, Prince, Kenny Rogers, George Strait, Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney and Elton John.
In recent years, the 8,500-seat facility has been the site of fewer and fewer concerts because of the poor sound system and the outdated electrical system, along with outdated restrooms and concession stands.
The debate has raged for the past several years whether to simply tear down the facility, but its sturdy construction -- and history -- lead the sentiment toward renovating it. Either way, a decision will have to made soon.
"I think a lot of sentiment goes into it because it's been here so long and it's such a historical building," Johnson said. "It's so structurally sound. There have been several football stadiums that were 30 years old that have been imploded, but when they get ready to implode this one, they'd better bring the best dynamite they've got."
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