Sunday, July 20, 2008

Center Can Still Be a Star

By Mike Hartranft

       The Santa Ana Star Center turned to someone with a broad community background in hiring Joe Cordova as director of sales this month.
    Cordova is a former city councilor, parks and recreation commissioner, school activist and events promoter, just to name some of the things he's done for Rio Rancho over the years.
    I read with interest his ideas with respect to the center's plan to refashion its image — from being primarily a concert and sports venue seeking to attract a regionwide audience — into an entertainment center for the people of Rio Rancho.
    Cordova told the Journal last week he's thinking about an Oktoberfest — which, indeed, was a popular community event — Halloween carnival, and St. Patrick's Day and Cinco de Mayo festivities. The idea, I'm presuming, is to promote greater use of the Star Center and get it on the fast track to paying for itself.
    Community-based and community-oriented events are all fine. I hope, though, we don't lose sight of the fact that the city still has a first-class facility that should be able to attract top-of- the-line events — and draw visitors from all over the region. It is, after all, THE destination in Rio Rancho's new downtown.
    The Journal's entertainment writer, Dan Mayfield, wrote this about the Star Center in 2006, some months before it opened: "There's a whole flock of musicians who can easily sell 8,000 tickets in the metro area. Artists who are too big for casino showrooms (1,000 to 3,000 seats) and too small for the Journal Pavilion (13,000 seats) will be the prime performers."
    I realize that rising fuel costs and the poor economy might be frustrating attempts to attract those types of acts at the Star Center, and I concede I know next to nothing about event booking. But I believed Mayfield's observation then, and I still do. I hope that goal remains a great part of the mix of events planned for the center.