Bottom Line

We would like to congratulate the Osceola News Gazette for actually reading the 'sunny-vision' brochure presented to the Osceola County Commission on the two proposed convention center projects. The WayneWho staff was delighted that the Gazette's editorial staff was able to gather the conveniently presented information and present it in that 'wag-your-finger at the public' pompous style of 'reporting' that they have developed over time. We are glad to see that in a time of falling readership that the Gazette has decided to stick to its guns on educating a public on what the periodical believes is important with its editorial piece this past Saturday called "1,000 new jobs? Great!" No doubt this will be another award winning piece.

If the editorial staff at the Gazette had any credibility in what they call journalism, they would have taken time during their kiss-butt editorial to discuss some of the realities of the current state of conventions on a national stage. Maybe they could have even combined their editorial brains to do some research into what the numbers, that they cut-and-paste from the commission friendly brochure, actually mean to the local tourism related businesses in the area. Maybe the editorial staff could have directed a reporter or two into talking to some of the local tourism based businesses to find out what real people actually think. Of course, this is too much to ask from a real news source.

The first question that should have been asked is what will the impact be of 1094 new rooms added to the Osceola County inventory on the current hotels and vacation home companies operating here? Adding a stand alone convention center with no rooms would help local hotels revive the occupancy rates that our local CVB has helped to shrink with its mismanagement and bad marketing over the past several years. As one local small hotelier remarked, 'My hotel will never see any of that convention business. Conventioners will stay on property as much as possible.' Another thought behind the increased inventory is that when the rooms are not filled with convention attendees, then companies like the Gaylord will turn up the sales efforts in the vacation market. Smart business on their part, but what will that do to the local hotel market? Many will say that this is just business and that survival of the fittest is the name of the game. The question then becomes are tax dollar subsidized businesses really more fit that those who are not receiving the same amount of money?

On this same note of the business model that is actually being ignored by the Commission and their parroting organization, the Gazette, is what is the actual state of the Convention Business? One quick article our un-news staff found in real news articles in convention trade publications reads, "Cracks are beginning to show in the multi-billion dollar Las Vegas convention industry... Trade show and convention attendance tumbled 22.3 percent in August and year-to-date attendance for 2008 is down 3.4 percent..." In that same article we found that "The situation in Reno is direr. In late September, the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority laid off 16 people. Officials there attributed the job cuts to a downturn in tourism and convention business." Other articles by industry insiders paint an even more dire picture of the industry. They report that once conventions are downsized they rarely are regrown to the size they once were. Unlike the Gazette's editorial staff that only views commission projects to spend taxpayer money through rose-colored glasses, the WayneWho staff likes to look at the reality of situations, like this, on the ground. It is this shrinking convention market, that we feel is one of the main reasons to build the projects in question. Companies putting on conventions that have shrunk year after year are looking for smaller and more affordable venues and this is where Osceola County could position itself. For our community to take advantage of this trend, the CVB would need to be overhauled by firing many of its incompetent staff and hiring people who actually understand market and business planning. The entire board would also need to be replaced with people who are more interested in Osceola County's future than how they can best serve themselves. The re-appointment of Jim Murphy to the board shows us the county is still headed in the wrong direction when it comes to tourism, and make us question the whole process behind the development of the convention center projects.

The claim that the Commission and Gazette keep trying to bring up are all of the jobs that are going to be created by building these projects. Don't get us wrong, even one job created in our community right now is a good thing, but we still have to make sure that taxpayer money being spent to create the jobs makes sense. The problem is that the numbers presented in the Gazette's editorial are just hype and offer no long term sustainability. First they want us to believe that "Construction alone would generate 3,100 jobs and a $116 million payroll over the 36-month construction period." This is great, but let's actually breakdown the reality of these jobs. The 3,100 jobs are not permanent jobs, they are temporary jobs during the life of the projects. Most of the jobs will only be involved with one part of the construction phase at a time further cutting the actually sustainability of the jobs being 'created.' After the construction is complete we also have to remember that these 3,100 estimated jobs will no longer exist on the construction side. The other claim on jobs is that the projects will create an 'estimated' 1,000 new long term jobs to service the facilities and business operations of the projects. What they are not telling the community is that most of the jobs are part-time services jobs that are dependent on the number of conventions booked. If there are no conventions booked, nobody is working. Another article we found states "In April 2008, company officials at GES Exposition Services, a leading convention and trade show contractor, announced plans to reduce its Las Vegas work force. At the time they didn't say how many jobs they would cut from the company's roster of 750 Las Vegas employees but told investors during a conference call the savings would amount to $1 million to $10 million in savings that would show up on the bottom line..." Maybe the Osceola News Gazette can write an editorial telling the cut work force that everything is just fine and peachy to get them through the Holiday months.

While the bottom line for business is profit, the bottom line for taxpayers is honesty. While the WayneWho staff understands that editorial columns are opinion pieces based on the objectivity of the writer, we do expect some thought to be given to issues such as this. Hiding facts and figures is something that should be saved for politicians and should not be part of the everyday (or at least twice a week) operations of a news source. We look forward to the better days of editorials ahead and maybe some answers to some of these questions.