Editor's note: FIRST in A TWO-PART SERIES
Gateway Consultants, the firm hired to study the feasibility of renovating Roberts Stadium or building an arena, cited Corpus Christi, Texas, as an example of a community that has built a successful new arena since 2000. Courier & Press staff writer Jimmy Nesbitt recently examined that community's response to the arena.
The new arena has helped attract large entertainment acts to Corpus Christi.
See report in Monday's edition.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The American Bank Center - Corpus Christi's nearly 4-year-old downtown arena - sits on North Shoreline Boulevard. Waves from Corpus Christi Bay lap against the nearby shoreline. Through the glass front of the center, people attending sporting events and concerts can look out toward the Gulf of Mexico as oceangoing ships thread their way through the string of nearby barrier islands that rim the southern Texas coastline.
The 8,600-seat arena, which opened in November 2004 to replace a smaller, 54-year-old coliseum, has been the centerpiece of Corpus Christi leaders' efforts to revitalize the city's downtown core.
Corpus Christi was cited by Gateway Consultants, the firm Evansville hired to study the feasibility of renovating Roberts Stadium or building an arena, as an example of a community that has built a successful new arena since 2000.
But whether the American Bank Center can be rated a success depends upon how a community measures the effect a new arena has on a city.
In Corpus Christi there are two schools of thought: Those who view an arena as a quality of life issue, and a second group concerned with a more tangible measurement, the financial bottom line.
From a quality of life standpoint, the American Bank Center has doubtlessly changed the landscape of the once stagnant downtown of the bayside city.
The 8,600-seat arena is said by some to have elevated Corpus Christi to a level where it can compete with nearby cities such as San Antonio and Austin for large-scale entertainment and music acts. Business leaders say the arena has helped keep young professionals from leaving for bigger cities and has served as a recruiting tool.
There's more foot and vehicle traffic downtown, and the arena has proved to be a boon to an entertainment district a few blocks away. A handful of developers are building lofts and condominiums nearby, hoping to capitalize on the growth.
But the arena is losing roughly $1 million a year, city officials say. However, SMG, which manages the arena, disagrees with the city's figures and says the arena is making a small profit.
Although the American Bank Center wasn't pitched to the public as a significant moneymaker, the loss, which doesn't include the debt service the city pays each year on bonds issued to pay for the arena, is a major concern, said assistant city manager Oscar Martinez.
With its massive port, oil refineries and miles of Gulf coast, Corpus Christi hardly mirrors Evansville's Midwestern culture. But the story of the American Bank Center and the effect it has had there offers a before-and-after picture of how a new arena affects a mid-size city.
District prepared
In Evansville, city leaders have after much debate made a series of moves, most recently expanding the Downtown Tax Increment Financing District, to lay the groundwork for the construction of a new arena to replace Roberts Stadium. Gateway Consultants estimated that a 10,000-seat arena would cost around $92 million. At that price, the arena would be one of the most expensive projects in the city's history.
Corpus Christi city leaders, though concerned with the arena's financial losses, overwhelmingly agree that it has improved the quality of life. Many said they believed a new arena could do the same thing in Evansville if there was public support and a way to finance it without raising property taxes.
So how did Corpus Christi, a city where until the arena was approved voters had long rejected bond issues for major projects, gain public support for the arena?
Corpus Christi has a population of around 285,000 and is Texas' eighth-largest city. While several of the state's largest cities have grown significantly in recent decades, Corpus Christi has experienced only modest growth, adding around 28,000 residents since 1990.
Home to several major oil refineries, Corpus Christi experienced an oil boom in the 1970s followed by a crash in the 1980s, and the city never recovered, said City Councilman Mike McCutchon, 44, a lifelong resident.
Contributing to that problem was a lack of higher education. Corpus Christi didn't have a four-year university until 1994, when the state approved a merger of Corpus Christi State University into The Texas A&M University System. The university, located on an island, has an enrollment of around 8,600 students and is expanding.
Old coliseum
Until the American Bank Center opened, the top entertainment venue in town was Memorial Coliseum, a 5,400 seat multipurpose arena built in 1954. Although structurally sound, the arena was technologically outdated and did not meet the requirements of the American with Disabilities Act, said Nueces County Judge Loyd Neal.
Corpus Christi is the county seat of Nueces County. Neal was mayor in 2000 when a consultant organized a political action committee called Forward Corpus Christi. The group consisted of a diverse group of citizens, businessmen, college students and homemakers, who organized to campaign for a sales tax increase to pay for the new arena.
They spoke at any venue, explaining how a new arena would be funded - by a one-eighth cent sales tax increase.
The arena was estimated to cost $49 million and would be built on the bay front in connection with the city's convention center.
Neal said he did not consider using property taxes to fund the arena. Doing so would have killed the project, he said.
Business consultant David Engel, who was chairman of Forward Corpus Christi, said he had 10 to 12 people available at any time prepared to speak about the arena and sales tax initiative.
Corpus Christi Mayor Henry Garrett, then a city councilman, said the process was very open by design. "We went out and just pitched it to our community," Garrett said. "We had town hall meetings, where we showed them the product. It was a transparent process."
There was little organized opposition to the arena. Joe O'Brien, president of the Corpus Christi Taxpayers Association, said many people who were against the project didn't speak out because they thought it was a done deal.
The sales tax increase passed in November 2000, and the arena opened four years later.
Funding for a minor league baseball stadium was approved two years later, and Whataburger Field opened in 2005. It's home to the Corpus Christi Hooks, a double A affiliate of the Houston Astros.
The final cost of the arena was around $53.3 million. The overruns were for improvements such as cup holders for the seats, said Garrett. That may seem like a minor detail, but it can go a long way toward improving visitors' experiences, he said.
"My strong suggestion to any community that's going to build an arena like this, that they not try to cut corners and come up with something that's going to cause them more problems than necessary," Garrett said.