Category Archives: Peoria Area CVB

City of Peoria, Peoria Area CVB, Peoria Civic Center

Civic Center loses wrestling tournament to Springfield

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The Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation’s annual Jon Davis IKWF Kids Open will be moving to Springfield for 2011 and 2012. The Peoria Civic Center has hosted the event for more than a decade. The contest is held every January and has brought in anywhere from 1,300 to 2,100 wrestlers annually. It was held at Redbird Arena until 1995 when the group left to protest ISU’s decision to drop wrestling as a varsity sport.

In e-mails forwarded to The Peoria Chronicle by a source who wishes to remain anonymous, Sports Sales Manager Chad Mentzer of the Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau wrote, “After talking with Mike Urwin with IKWF, there are two reasons why we lost this piece of business…. #1 Hotels. Average cost [in Springfield] is approximately $20 cheaper per night. #2 Facility rental fees. Projected fees in Springfield are, based upon expenses from 2009, considerably less than the Peoria Civic Center.” The group sought a block of 400 room nights for the one-day event.

Joel Green, Director of Sales and Marketing at the Hotel Pere Marquette responded to Mentzer’s e-mail by saying that his hotel had “lowered our rates considerably for 2011… after holding our rates for 2009 and 2010.” January rates are historically low to begin with in the Peoria hospitality industry. Regarding the venue, Debbie Ritschel, General Manager of the Peoria Civic Center, added, “In this particular case the fact that they [Springfield] will not have to cover ice in their arena may have also been a factor.”

In April, Holiday Inn City Centre General Manager Sami Qureshi stated that the top reason conventions skip Peoria is due to the Civic Center’s rate structure. This recent convention loss and the reasons cited by the IKWF appear to support that contention.

The loss of this event also highlights the competitive nature of hotel room pricing. If the Pere Marquette lowered its room rates below 2009 levels and Springfield was still able to offer rates $20 per night lower, one wonders how a four- or five-star Marriott hotel will be able to offer competitive rates that are high enough to pay off the debt service on a $37 million bond taken out by the City of Peoria.

City of Peoria, General News, Peoria Area CVB, Peoria Civic Center

Civic Center rates the No. 1 reason conventions skip Peoria

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Why do organizations skip Peoria and choose other cities to host their conventions?

The reasons were revealed by Sami Qureshi on WTVP’s public affairs program “At Issue” Thursday night. He should know. He’s the Holiday Inn City Centre’s General Manager, President of the Heart of Illinois Hospitality Association, and Secretary/Treasurer of the Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. He’s talked to convention organizers and read the PACVB’s lost business surveys.

Based on those primary sources, Qureshi says the number one reason Peoria is bypassed is because of the Peoria Civic Center’s rate structure. The number two reason is limited air service. The main reason is not, he says, due to a lack of quality hotel rooms.

Gary Matthews, the hotel developer who hopes to turn the Pere Marquette into a Marriott and connect it to the Civic Center with the help of $37 million in municipal (i.e., taxpayer-backed) bonds, disagreed with Qureshi. Matthews said that Marriott officials told him the Peoria Civic Center’s rates are perfectly fine. Qureshi countered that he wasn’t stating his opinion, but is just repeating what actual organizers who actually said “no” to Peoria had told him.

Qureshi and Matthews were on “At Issue” along with Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis and Holiday Inn City Centre owner Bruce Kinseth to talk about the “Wonderful Development” and its ramifications. There was also a prerecorded clip of Mark Twain Hotel owner and former Peoria mayor Lowell “Bud” Grieves explaining his alternative proposal. The episode will be replayed Sunday at 4:30 p.m. on WTVP, channel 47.

City of Peoria, Peoria Area CVB

When the going gets tough…

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…the tough get going — out of town? Steve Powell resigned as director of the Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau yesterday and said he’s moving back to Missouri. Why? The Journal Star reports:

Powell acknowledged he was taking heat from some bureau board members, who include several hoteliers, about the fact he favors a new hotel attached to the Peoria Civic Center.

Just in case you don’t know who’s on the PACVB board of directors, here they are (according to their website, which I assume is up-to-date):

  • Dan Cunningham, EastSide Centre – Chairman
  • Ken Goldin, Bradley University – Vice Chairman
  • LaVonne Hamilton Klein, Stoney Creek Inn & Conference Center – Secretary/Treasurer
  • Rick Edwards, Caterpillar Inc.
  • Jim Garner, MultiAd
  • Craig Hullinger, City of Peoria
  • Honorable John Morris, Peoria City Council
  • Frank Pedulla, Radisson Hotel Peoria
  • Tony Pisano, Kouris’ Restaurants
  • Sami Qureshi, Holiday Inn City Centre
  • Debbie Ritschel, Peoria Civic Center
  • Mary Jo Schettler, PAR-A-DICE Hotel Casino
  • Honorable W. Eric Turner, Peoria City Council
  • Don Welch, Hotel Pere Marquette

Now, I’m not a proponent of the Civic Center hotel idea either. But if taking a little heat from the board over one of your ideas/positions causes you to take your ball and go home, there’s something wrong. There must be more to the story than that.

I don’t think it has anything to do with the recent flap over unauthorized redirection of funds because that took place under Keith Arnold, Powell’s predecessor. It’s hard to imagine how that could have hurt Powell, unless he was involved in some sort of cover-up after the fact.

Perhaps this quote from Powell provides a clue:

“The only thing I’ll say is that Peoria needs to be sold as a destination, then they can better sell the products that are offered within the destination. Some people didn’t understand that.”

It sounds like the differences between Powell and the board went deeper than a single hotel issue. That quote makes it sound like there was a fundamental difference of philosophy on how to “sell” Peoria, and that’s why Powell’s job may have been in jeopardy if he kept pushing his agenda. In that case, his departure may have been on principle.

Now they have to start searching for a new director, and the search committee comprises the bureau’s chairman (Cunningham) and vice chairman (Goldin), a representative from Caterpillar, and a representative appointed by the Mayor. Considering Cat is against a Civic Center hotel, and the city isn’t very warm to the idea either, I’ll bet the next director will be against it, too. Which begs the question, did Cat have anything to do with the pressure put on Mr. Powell?