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During their three-day stay in the city, members of the Wisconsin Wastewater Operator’s Association were expected to spend $270 to $450 apiece at local hotels, shops and restaurants. It’s among the 34 conventions and 270 events the La Crosse Center will host this year.
In 2000, the La Crosse Common Council gambled that a $14 million expansion would help the financially struggling facility at least break even. “We did go out on a financial limb,” said then-Mayor John Medinger, “but it is an investment in our future.”
One that appears to have paid off.
Bookings in the renovated center, which almost doubled in size, jumped from 26 in 2000 to 34 in 2001. Center operations pulled into the black after two consecutive years of needing city money to stay afloat.
While the number of conventions at the Second Street facility has hovered in the mid-30s since, the center has continued to be self-sufficient and even built a safety net, said Center Director Art Fahey.
Last year, it posted a profit of more than $165,000.
The center still owes the city about $105,000 from the red-ink years and pays back $8,500 annually.
Part of the turnaround from the red-ink years was finding new sources of revenue, such as making electrical hook-ups for booths a separate charge, Fahey said.
The center also receives 2 percent of La Crosse’s 7 percent hotel room tax.
Before the expansion, the center lost business because it didn’t have the space to host multiple events, Fahey said. The renovation created two exhibit halls, a ballroom, board rooms, a pre-function area and food preparation space.
At the time, demand for convention space in the state was exceeding what was available.
That’s no longer the case, said Dave Clements, director of the La Crosse Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Conventions at the center peaked at 37 in 2004, and have leveled off. Events hit a high of 320 in 2001 and tapered to as few as 266 in 2006, though they are up to 270 this year.
The center competes with facilities in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Oshkosh, Lake Geneva, Janesville and Stevens Point.
But the Wisconsin Dells — in particular, the monstrous Kalahari resort and convention center off Interstate 90 — stands as the main rival.
The Kalahari, built in 2000, boasts a hotel, restaurant, retail shops, water park — you need never leave the building, Fahey said.
“When I was a kid, the Dells was a summer resort,” Clements said. “Now, it’s successfully become a year-round destination.”
The Dells’ convention and visitors bureau also has a much bigger budget: $9.5 million versus La Crosse’s $645,000.
Communities such as the Dells and Stevens Point have the added advantage of being close to the center of the state.
Since they can’t match the added attractions of the Dells or the easier-to-reach location of a Stevens Point, Fahey and Clements tout La Crosse’s setting.
“We don’t pretend to be a Dells-type resort,” Fahey said. “When you sell the La Crosse Center, you’re marketing the city and all the things that go along with it.”
“Once we get them here, they love it,” Clements said. “But it’s a matter of convincing them to drive here.”
The downtown, the riverfront, the bluffs, the La Crosse Queen — all are ways to lure conventions in, Clements said.
“They can’t compete with our scenic beauty,” he added. “The bluffs and the river cannot be duplicated.”
The center already has a solid footing among state associations that rotate where annual meetings or conventions are held. In the past few months alone, the center has confirmed Wisconsin Healthcare Engineering Association, the Association of County Officials and the Governor’s Conference on Emergency Management, Clements said.
“We have a pretty good grasp on who is planning meetings in Wisconsin,” Fahey added.
Continued success, however, will hinge on reaching out to new markets. That’s why Clements and Fahey make quarterly trips to Chicago and Minneapolis.
“It’s a slow process, but it’s starting to work,” Clements said.
With more choices, organizations are waiting longer to book, so the marketing efforts can take awhile to show results.
Most conventions now book two to three years in advance, while three to five years used to be the norm, Clements said.
“It’s not like turning on a light switch,” he said.
And despite the work done in 2000, some rooms, such as the Zielke Suite and North Hall, both in place before the addition, already are showing their age, Fahey and Clements both said.
“There’s going to come a day when we’ll talk about expansion again,” Fahey said, though he doesn’t expect that will be anytime soon. The 2000 expansion, he noted, took more than six years to approve.
The facility also needs to be constantly improving in order to keep up, Clements said.
The center now provides wireless Internet connections by moving antennas throughout the building, but a more permanent solution will be needed, Fahey said.
And, of course, more parking wouldn’t hurt, he said.
“Either you improve or you get left behind,” Clements said. “Because there’s always somebody out there who has got bigger, better, newer, nicer.”
Samantha Marcus can be reached at (608) 791-8220 or smarcus@lacrossetribune.com.
