A fund meant to buy new seats or replace the roof at Nationwide Arena "already is running dry three years after the city and county agreed to use casino tax money to buy and operate the arena," according to a front-page piece by Rick Rouan of the COLUMBUS DISPATCH. As casino tax receipts "have lagged predictions, the share of money Columbus and Franklin County send to the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority almost exclusively is being used to subsidize the management company formed to market and run the arena." That "leaves little for improvements -- and nothing to pay off the loans the authority used to purchase the arena." So far, "less than $400,000 has been deposited into the capital-improvement fund, and only about $100,000 remains in the account." The authority "has started to defer projects on its 25-year plan for the arena." Now, the authority "is looking at how to shuffle capital improvements and for money to update the 15-year-old arena in the future." City and county officials said that they "wouldn’t support sending more tax dollars to the authority, which has not made a payment on a pair of loans used to buy the arena from its private owners." The share of casino tax receipts given to the authority will increase by 1% "a year starting next year before capping" at 32%. The deal "was expected to cost the city and county" about $250M by the time it expires in '39. Convention Facilities Authority Exec Dir Don Brown said that with revenue "running short, though, plans to replace seats in the arena’s upper bowl have been delayed." The authority is about $1.8M "behind on its capital-improvement fund contributions." The authority "is reviewing the capital-improvement plan, but Brown said it has to meet changing" NHL standards. It "also has to keep up with evolving fan expectations, such as wireless Internet access and instant replay on scoreboards" (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 6/7).
