Delta Air Lines' name may not go on an expanded Albert B. Sabin Cincinnati Convention Center, but some business and political leaders aren't ready to scrap the $198 million plan that was more than a decade in the making.

Cabbie Walter Roberts says an expanded convention center could bring him more business, but that focusing too much on the building might be misplacing priorities. (Brandi Stafford photo) | ZOOM |

        Eric Kearney, chairman of the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau, said Thursday that his organization is working hard to find a replacement — or possibly replacements — for Delta's abandoned naming rights commitment, which would have amounted to more than $15 million.

        Mr. Kearney said he spoke with business leaders on Thursday and that it might be possible to sell naming rights for individual halls within an expanded center, rather than having one corporation buy the rights for the entire building.

        “I'm still very optimistic that an expansion will happen,” Mr. Kearney said. “We're analyzing every opportunity. We're looking at finding another sponsor. And we're looking at other sources of revenue in order to support that project.

        “Selling naming rights to individual halls within the center is a tougher road than having one source for one sum of money. But that does not mean we can't raise the same amount of money by having 10 partners replacing that one partner.”

        Mr. Kearney said the situation is “too dynamic” to estimate how much of a delay Delta's decision would cause if the center is ever expanded.

        There is an approaching deadline, though.

        City and Hamilton County political leaders have only until Sept. 30 to increase their respective bed taxes. The county had been considering a 3.5-percentage-point increase, generating about $7 million a year, to pay for a large portion of the expansion. The city also has the ability to bump its bed tax by an additional percentage point.

        Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken announced Wednesday that, after discussions with hotel owners, the expansion would be “mothballed” and replaced with an undefined plan to renovate the facility. He said city staff is exploring whether tax increases can be passed but implemented later, if and when the money is needed.

        “In the short term, the project is not going anywhere because of all the money we don't have,” Mr. Luken said. “Everybody's looking for another way. But Delta is a sponsor who gets immediate bottom-line benefit from the expansion. Other companies only get advertising. It doesn't drop to their bottom line.”

        The decision amounts to a defining moment for the region, said Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune, who in January put a financing plan together with Mr. Luken. He said that if the bed taxes are not increased by the Sept. 30 deadline, it would be difficult to get the state legislature to give the city and county the necessary permission to raise the taxes later.

        “We need to reverse the serious damage done to the city's and the region's business interests by the suggestion yesterday that the expansion project would be shelved,” Mr. Portune said. “The outcome of this is going to say an awful lot about where we're really heading. I, for one, reject the suggestion that our only option is to shelve the project.

        “The fact is that decisions are being made in boardrooms right now, as we speak, about whether businesses will remain here or will relocate.”

        Mr. Portune said he has held several discussions with members of the Cincinnati Business Committee about possible solutions. The CBC is made up of some of the city's biggest corporations. Executive director Laura Long did not return phone calls seeking comment Thursday.

        For those whose livelihoods depend on conventions and tourism, the debate takes on special meaning.

        Walter Roberts, a 35-year veteran cabbie, said a bigger convention center might bring more business his way. But focusing too much on the building may be misplacing priorities.

        “I would like to see the city get its heads together,” he said.

        Mike Crowe, owner of the Plum Street Cafe, said he was never too optimistic about an expansion, having seen too many attempts fail.

        “It's just Cincinnati” he said.

        Tim Cleary is one businessman who would like to see the center expanded. A partner in the Expo Source Inc., a company that books trade shows all over the Midwest, he said the Sabin Center is “quite a ways behind other facilities.” Mr. Cleary, who is based in North Carolina, has booked the Cincinnati Business Expo in the Sabin Center twice a year since 1985.

        “The problem is that everybody wants the same date all over the country,” Mr. Cleary said. “Cincinnati needs an expansion so it can get more shows in there, but that will just be more space sitting empty in June, July and August.”

Reporter Amy Higgins contributed.

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