Brewed Fresh Daily

Chris, the editor at CrainTech, posted a comment about the dreaded issue hanging over our heads. I waited long enough and Chas Rich jumped into the fray. Thanks, Chas! I noticed there isn't a whole lot of commenting on Sardonic Views. Get over there and participate people! A couple of points I'd like to make:

• I'd say we're after anyone who pays the bills to use the damn thing. I don't care who it is, if we build it, we need utilization of the thing.
• Let's define "meaningful amount of that business". I'm talking definitive numbers. How much of that business are we realistically going to get? IF (big if) we do this, what size convention will we end up with? How many of those are there? We're not the A list destination. I don't even think we're a B list convention destination. MAYBE (big maybe) we could book SOME of the C list convention. What sort of revenue will A PERCENTAGE of those generate?
• Here's the link to the column Chris spoke of. Good thing I keep an archive of the stuff from Cool Cleveland. I remember we published it there.
• Do we want a union convention here? If we do, why? Political reasons? Financial? If unions are struggling as much as I think there are, are we betting on them to be the future?
• Naming another city that hasn't spent a billion dollars on something isn't going to get us the radical change we need, it's keeping up with the Jones'. That game is why we're playing out this convention center scenerio now, when someone probably conceived this twenty years ago, but was shushed because everyone else wanted to maintain the status quo.
• When someone who (a person of reputation in the blogsphere as an expert in entrepreneurism) was directed to me was inquiring what was happening in this area, he wasn't asking about the Convention Center. He was inquirying about urban revitalization. Things EcoCityCleveland is doing. We need to get a grip. If a campaign is failing, you withdraw your forces to an area where you're winning. Not send crack troops into a hopeless battle. If Cleveland wants to be known as a leader in something, what is it that other people think we demostrate leadership in? There's too much navel gazing around here
• If we're spending money on infrastructure, a convention center is not the kind of infrastructure I'd choose. Let's be forward thinking. What kind of infrastructure should we be building for the next 50 years? How could we influence the way other cities think about their infrastructure by the decisions we make? Can we show leadership?
• Finally, Brewed Fresh Daily is a site where I post my OPINIONS. I invite others to do so as well. Please keep it in mind. I don't like booting people, but if you get rude, I'll give you the virtual back of the hand. If you don't like it, start your own blog. I do my best to create an open forum that will foster this kind of discussion and appreciate everyone effort in making it that