PEORIA, Ill. – You might say the Peoria Civic Center is having a banner year, and it’s coming at just the right time.
Right now, Civic Center General Manager Rik Edgar tells WMBD’s Craig Collins the venue is doing better than expected budget-wise.
“This year, the activity level, especially in the concerts and entertainment events — that being comedy, Hot Wheels, things of that nature — has been at such record highs…we are now, at the end of April, we are $1 million in the black. We are $2 million ahead of budget,” said Edgar.
Edgar says that might come in handy once it has to shut down parts of the venue for upgrades, like a new scoreboard for Carver Arena and that ice plant upgrade.
“The money that came from the taxpayers (bond money from the City of Peoria) is going to go into a reserve fund,” said Edgar. “When we are upside-down by not being able to open for projects, we’ll be able to cover our losses without having to come back and ask for more dollars.”
Speaking of taxes, Edgar says the Civic Center pays plenty of those.
“We hear we are a drain on the taxpayers, or it takes away from the taxpayers,” said Edgar. “We paid almost $900,000 in taxes already this year.”
Edgar says Civic Centers like Peoria’s aren’t necessarily designed to make money; rather, they are supposed to be drivers for surrounding businesses to make money.
He says this might be the best year the Civic Center has had financially in the last 20 years.
