Plan to help Garrett Coliseum could emerge within weeks, leaders say
The state is looking at rescinding $800,000 in funding to remodel Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery. Officials are trying to come up with a plan to save the antiquated facility. / Mickey Welsh/Advertiser file
Lawmakers and the administration of Gov. Robert Bentley are looking toward cutting funding for renovations at Garrett Coliseum, but Mayor Todd Strange and other local officials said there is an opportunity for a public-private partnership to update the antiquated facility.
A committee in the Alabama Senate voted 9-1 on Wednesday to rescind a 2010 bill that would provide $800,000 a year in state funding that would be combined with private investment and local funding to revamp the coliseum. Both sides said Wednesday that the original effort at public-private partnership failed, but that there is a renewed effort.
"There is a group making a last-ditch attempt to do something about Garrett Coliseum," said State Sen. Dick Brewbaker, R-Pike Road.
Brewbaker said they should know within a week or two if that effort is viable.
He was the one member of the committee to vote against the bill, but said his colleagues assured him they would allow time to determine whether the current effort will work.
The administration wants to free up the $800,000 line item to use elsewhere in the General Fund budget.
With the dire budget situation in the state, Sen. Arthur Orr, the sponsor of the bill and chairman of the Senate General Fund budget committee, said "we're trying to find any pockets of revenue that we could use to mitigate the severity of the cuts."
Senate Minority Leader Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, who was chairman of the Senate General Fund budget committee when they passed the bill, said he supported it then, but then the public-private partnership did not work out.
He said he supports "redoing Garrett Coliseum" and believes it is a "real Alabama treasure."
*Brewbaker would not divulge who was behind the effort to revitalize the public-private partnership, but pushed his colleagues for more time. If the effort is unsuccessful, he said he would not oppose the efforts to pull the funding.
Bedford, said he did not know there was another effort.
Brewbaker and Rep. Joe Hubbard, D-Montgomery, said the area and the economy benefit if the coliseum remains open.
"It is an economic engine. It can be a great economic engine in the future," Hubbard said.
He said there is a several million-dollar economic impact on the city from the coliseum.
"That is something we can't afford to lose as a community," Hubbard said.
Brewbaker said that if they defund it, the coliseum will "sit out there and rot," becoming a public safety issue, so he wants to ensure they "turn over all the rocks."
Strange said Wednesday that he had told state officials earlier this year that the city, county and state should come up with a plan for Garrett Coliseum.
He said he had been asked if the city wanted to take over the facility.
"My answer was no, that's not something that we'd be interested in," he said.
But, in conjunction with other entities, it's a possibility, the mayor said.
"In partnership, it would be worth discussing," he said.
He said the facility that houses several large annual events, including a multi-day rodeo earlier this month, is "worth saving."
At a legislative update Wednesday morning, Hubbard and fellow state Rep. Jay Love, R-Montgomery, told Strange and other city and county officials that the Legislature was working on a plan for the coliseum.
"We are in the process of working out something that could save that facility for our use in the city and county," Hubbard said.
Hubbard said he talked with Strange, County Commission Chairman Elton Dean and Commissioner John McMillan of the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries.
McMillan did not respond to a request for comment before press time.
Hubbard said he is working to have legislation drafted that would create a coliseum authority that would allow the state, city and county to work with the business community "to renovate the coliseum and ultimately sell it to a private developer."
He was hopeful they could create a quasi-governmental entity.
Hubbard said if there had been a serious effort to form a public-private partnership, "they would have looked at this authority option."
"I say give us some time to try this. That is what I am trying to do at no cost to the state," Hubbard said.
The coliseum is home to the Alabama National Fair, the circus, monster truck shows, rodeos and similar events.
"Whether there is a private organization that can make a profit off of these things, I don't know the answer to that," Hubbard said.
Hubbard also said the coliseum is an "architectural marvel."
"It really has some intrinsic value," he said.
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* Winton Blount?
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