Sanford Center Task Force Recommends Keeping Management Company

After a year of dissecting and analyzing the business and policies of Bemidji’s Sanford Event Center, the task force that was created to help guide the future of the event center presented a lengthy report of their findings came to their conclusion of what should be considered successful when it comes to the Sanford Center. Their recommendation was to have the city stay the course and continue using management company VenuWorks in the future.

To show what success looks like, a success pyramid was created that starts with user experience at the top, followed by regional recruitment, BSU hockey, and the largest portion being the community and economic impact from conferences and events.

One of the stand-out moments from the presentation was when the task force recommended continuing to use VenuWorks, which has faced multiple issues since the event center first opened its doors.

Council member Ron Johnson shared that the event center ran a deficit last year of nearly $800,000 and questioned how that can be considered successful.

Negotiations with VenuWorks could begin as early as January. Approval of a new ten-year naming rights contract is expected late next year.