PEORIA, Ill. – 343.
That’s the number of event days the Peoria Civic Center had in the just-ended fiscal year, according to General Manager Rik Edgar.
And with that kind of busy-ness, Edgar says that leads to impressive attendance numbers – just under 500,000 ticketed visitors, not counting those who work the events.
“Pre-COVID, the numbers might have been higher, but we have more qualified guests coming now, that are spending their money,” said Edgar. “I’ve been a believer, and my board has supported this, to not grease our numbers.”
In terms of finances, Edgar says Fiscal Year 2023 was, “the best year the venue’s had.”
“We crushed every record by far,” said Edgar, to WMBD’s “Greg and Dan Show.” “In fact, we had our best year by more than a million dollars over what was the previous best year.”
Edgar says that’s $1 million net, not gross, and with the caveat that because it’s a non-profit organization, the Civic Center isn’t supposed to make money.
So, that extra money was used to, in Edgar’s words, reinvest in the center, so the profit will be as close to zero as possible.
That’s also on top of more than $20 million in new bond money provided by the city for other infrastructure projects.
