Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones has “extended the management agreement” for the Richmond Coliseum “temporarily because the city doesn't have time to seek bids for a new contract before the current one expires at the end of June,” according to Michael Martz of the RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH. The administration said that it “signed the 30-month contract extension with longtime manager SMG on Feb. 2 to gain time to hire a consultant that will help determine what kind of long-term agreement the city will seek for managing the 40-year-old civic arena, which the mayor has proposed to replace.” Garland Williams, Senior Assistant to Chief Administrative Officer Byron Marshall, told a City Council committee Monday that the city “began urgent negotiations with SMG last month after realizing the current five-year extension would expire June 30.” Williams said, “The last time a contract was negotiated, it took almost 10 months." SMG has managed the Coliseum “in a joint venture with Johnson Inc. since 2002 but has been involved with the arena's management more than 25 years.” Richmond agreed in '07 to “extend the contract for five years, as city officials wrestled with whether to replace or renovate the deteriorating building.” Jones decided early last year to "support construction of a $147.1 million replacement a block from City Hall, but the city doesn't have the money or regional support to build it" (RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH, 2/22).
