General Manager Jeff Esposito said that Owensboro Convention Center and SportsCenter are expected to beat their budget for the current fiscal year by a combined nearly $260,000.
Esposito told the City Commissioners that breaks down to $155,344 for the Convention Center and $104,424 for the SportsCenter. He added that the subsidies for the two venues will be reduced to about $118,000 and $233,000, respectively.
“So this was a good year for both buildings,” Esposito said.
He also noted that this year had seen 15 conventions totaling 6,500 attendees and a projected net income of $504,497. Esposito also noted that 28 tournaments between the two facilities garnered 45,000 attendees with $217,185 being brought in.
Esposito said the tournaments do not include their tenant sporting events, such as basketball games for Owensboro Catholic High School, Kentucky Wesleyan College, and the Owensboro Thoroughbreds.
In addition to hosting events for third parties at their facilities, Esposito discussed self-promoted events hosted by the Convention Center and SportsCenter. He said this fiscal year they held 21 events, with 18,000 people attending in total.
That includes record-breaking attendance at Breakfast with Santa, the Cork and Cuisine Hallo-wine event, and the annual Kraftucky event.
“The team did an excellent job. That totals about $240,491 from our self-promoted events. So it’s just a testament to the team’s creativity, ingenuity, and not liking the building sitting idle,” he said.
Looking ahead, Esposito said the sales team put $1.6 million on the books before the upcoming fiscal year started. While having money on the books early is typical, he said this is a $500,000 increase from last year’s budget.
“Things are booked in advance, but [sales team] increased it by $500,000 over the previous year. That was already booked before the year started, so that was just great,” Esposito said.
