The Greater Richmond Convention Center will be empty on Thursday. That’s not news; there’s a reason it loses $4-5 million a year. It’s not because there’s not an arts center across the street, by the way—you need only read this report to know that the supply of convention center space in the U.S. far exceeds demand.
That’s why enlarging the Richmond convention center was such a dumb idea. Asking an empty building to spur economic development is a classic example of Richmond strategery.
So anyway, it’s more than somewhat galling to read that there won’t be a free Thanksgiving dinner at the convention center this year, because the group putting it on couldn’t swing the six large they needed to rent a facility that will otherwise go empty.
From the article:
The center’s general manager, Michael Meyers, said yesterday that he wasn’t aware of a request by Family of Friends for a special price concession but noted that it would have been difficult to accommodate.“If we did that, what would we do about the 100 other charities, what do we say to them?”
How about, “Well, okay, nobody’s using it anyway”? Just a thought.