Fort Smith Convention Center funding a critical issue

In a few short years, the city of Fort Smith will take a big financial hit to fund the operation of the Fort Smith Convention Center. Depending on what happens to annual revenues from convention center operations, the city could face a $2 million annual line item to keep the doors open on a facility that draws hundreds of thousands of people to downtown Fort Smith.

However, convention centers weren’t built to make money. Most tourism officials say that such facilities, like roads and parks, are designed to promulgate an overall increase in commerce — and, as a result, tax collections.

But Fort Smith officials will soon have to face and answer two big questions:

• How much of an annual convention center deficit is appropriate?

• Is the city’s tourism structure organized in the most efficient manner possible?

In answering — or making the attempt to answer — those questions, the city board of directors might come around to possibly the biggest question: How do we fund our regional tourism efforts so we can best compete with Little Rock, Hot Springs, Tulsa and other similar metro areas?

These issues and more are reviewed in a two-part report by The City Wire. Link here for the first part of the report. The second report should be posted Jan. 8, to The City Wire.