Fairgrounds an attractive bird in the hand.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Charles Warren For The Register-Guard

Many well-meaning people feel the best solution for the Lane County fairgrounds is to sell it and to move the fair to another location.

This sounds like a simple solution, but the situation is much more complex than it appears.

First, the land is used as a fairgrounds only two weeks out of the year. For the other 50 weeks it is Lane County's primary convention, trade show and exposition center. Because it is also a venue for local events as well as youth athletics, 4-H activities, and ice skating, it is now called the Lane Events Center.

The Lane Events Center hosted more than 200 separate events last year totaling more than 400 event days - everything from the Piccadilly Flea Market to the Logging Conference. Nearly a million people (many of them tourists who paid the room tax) visited the center last year.

The Lane Events Center is a very special and unique property with its centralized location, more than 200,000 square feet of exhibit space, 2,000 free parking spaces during most events, excellent bus service, freeway access off Jefferson Street and beautifully landscaped grounds.

There is a synergy between the fair and the Convention Center that is very important; one complements the other. The Lane County Fair generates net profits of more than $400,000, which helps support the Events Center. The fair uses all the Events Center buildings, and many of the larger trade shows use the entire fairgrounds, including the livestock building. There is also considerable economy in staffing and management by having these two facilities together.

The overall operation does require subsidies, just as the Hult Center, the Cuthbert Amphitheater and nearly all such civic facilities do. Most of the room tax moneys the center receives goes for capital maintenance and improvements, and much of what it receives it generates through convention business room tax dollars.

There have been a lot of proposals bandied about in regard to the future of the fairgrounds, but none of them really make economic sense. For example:

1) Sell the fairgrounds and move the entire events center and convention facility to a more rural location.

The estimated cost in 2003 to move and rebuild the entire facility was more than $70 million. The cost would be prohibitive in today's economic climate, and we could not duplicate the convenient location and amenities. There is also the fact the conventioneers require accessible hotels, restaurants and shopping, which would not be available in a more rural setting.

2) Sell only the western portion, 25 acres of the property, to McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center, eliminating the ice rink, livestock building, stables and some parking, and move the fairgrounds itself out to a rural area.

We would end up with fair "lite." Without the Events Center buildings, such as the expo center and exhibit halls that are so important to the overall flavor of the fair, the Lane County Fair would become nothing more than a glorified carnival. The center also would lose a substantial portion of the $400,000 profit that the fair generates annually.

There is also the serious question whether a hospital and a convention center could coexist on adjoining grounds. There would be additional traffic and congestion in the surrounding neighborhood. We would lose some of our larger conventions - such as the Logging Conference, Black Sheep Convention and Country Coach Rally - because we would no longer have space to accommodate them.

3) Sell all the property to a developer or to McKenzie-Willamette, move the fairgrounds to a more rural location, and finance through a major bond measure the construction of a Class A convention center, in conjunction with a major hotel somewhere in the core area.

This would be the ideal long-term solution for our community. The hospital would be in a prime location south of the river, we would have a Class A convention center that would allow us to be much more competitive for major convention dollars, and we would still have access to a fairgrounds.

The problem is, I don't believe the voters of Lane County are willing to back a major ($100 million plus) bond measure. Even the sale of the existing property for $20 million to $25 million would net the county only about $15 million to $20 million after debt service.

In the meantime, we have a good, albeit aging, Class B convention center, and an outstanding fairgrounds that will continue to serve our area for another 10 to 15 years. So, until we are willing to make a major investment in new facilities, it would seem foolish to give up a proven performer.

Charles Warren is a local businessman and a former chairman of the Lane County Fair Board.