With the loss of Delta's contribution, the center won't be getting bigger. But maybe it's already big enough.

        Cities build bigger convention centers to compete with other cities that are building bigger convention centers. It's like an arms race or a major league baseball owner — sooner or later you bankrupt yourself trying to outspend or out build the other guy. You will never stay on top and you may fall behind on other things just by trying to get there.

        Convention centers require huge capital investments for a rootless industry. Convention business depends on people coming into the community on short visits. And there is absolutely no guarantee that they are ever going to come back.

        The convention committees of business and industry groups — the people who decide where their organization will have its next convention, look for novelty. If you are with the Pittsburgh chapter of national association of widget makers, you might enjoy coming to Cincinnati. You can look at the river, see a Reds game, and maybe take a side trip to Kings' Island or the casino boats. But next year you're going to want to see someplace different. Like maybe St. Louis — where you can look at a river, take in a ball game and ride on a casino boat.

        Unless it has a really unique attraction — say an ocean or a Las Vegas style reputation — a city's welcome mat starts to look threadbare to a convention committee after a year or two. That's why banking on convention business can be a risky investment for a city like Cincinnati. Our recent history bears this out.

        In the early 1980s people started talking about expanding the convention center. Without more floor space and fancier digs, we were told that Cincinnati's convention business would dwindle. Under-appreciated conventioneers would take their nametags and their expense accounts to such places as Indianapolis, Minneapolis or Kansas City. Our hotels would go to seed, our restaurants would close up and tumbleweeds would blow through Fountain Square.

        So the county and the city spent millions, and in 1987 completed a renovation that nearly doubled the center in size. That was when the building was named for Dr. Albert B. Sabin. In those days we named public buildings to honor great people. Dr. Sabin developed the polio vaccine and didn't even have to write a check to get his name put over the door.

        The plan worked — for a little while. But pretty soon the competition caught up. Now we are told we need to expand the center so we have enough floor space to simultaneously host two conventions. If we don't do it the hotels will go to seed, the restaurants will close up and Cincinnati will have missed the boat show.

        The last renovation was described as “world class” and was supposed to set Cincinnati apart from the competition. Its design included the incorporation of the Albee Arch.

        The Albee Arch?

        The arch is the marble edifice framing the door on the Fifth Street side of the building. Once upon a time it was the facade of the Albee Theater, an architectural gem on the south side of Fourth Street across from Fountain Square. The city demolished it about 20 years ago to make way for the Westin Hotel. Saving the arch was a way to make the preservationists who spent months protesting at City Council meetings (they preferred the classical beauty of the theater to the polyester-like concrete of the hotel) finally shut up and go away.

        The architects and planners said the arch would be a focal point of the “new” convention center. The building would inspire people driving north on Plum Street as they aimed straight for the arch-framed entrance on Fifth Street. Of course the Fifth Street entrance turned out to be a side door and Plum Street was made one-way, heading south. The lovely arch is now just a focal point in the rear-view mirror.

        Contact David Wells at 768-8310; fax: 768-8610; e-mail: dwells@enquirer.com. Cincinnati.com keyword: Wells.

After snubbing Cincinnati, Cosby coming to Oxford
Some won't give up on Sabin plans
Downtown businesses watch plans come, go
Downtown retail projects slowed by drab economy
Food, crafts show scheduled in Reading
Jim Coomer lived the life of a riverman
Judge sentences Waagner to 20 more years for gun, car thefts
Second home for teens
Supporters of Israel rally in Blue Ash
Tristate A.M. Report
Two-week vacation ends for convict
Wrecks snarl traffic on I-71
You've read 'Seabiscuit'; now you can be in the movie
BRONSON: Defending Iraq Why the media get no respect
HOWARD: Some Good News
SMITH AMOS: Policing the police
WELLS: Convention center
Edgewood, Cinergy OK tax amount
Neighbors raise stink over smell
Ross schools reduce levy request on Nov. ballot
Scholarships for the stage
Terminal, not airport, named for Hogans
Bad wigs abound at ballpark
Ohio considers Amber alerts
Ohio may have 3rd West Nile case
Ohio revokes liquor license of Uncle Milt's bar in Avondale
Suspect in 4 murders had troubled, not violent, past
Bridge troubles Walton
Customers would - and do - travel 500 miles for this sale
Kentucky Political Notes
'O Brother' artists to play Clooney festival
Trucker sought after woman reports attack