Covid Chronicles. Chapter 49: World Dairy Expo Cancelled

 

Read chapter 48 here

Photo credit:  WISC-TV

Friday, June 5, 2020 

If I were still a member of the Dane County Board AND serving as chair of the Public Works and Transportation (PWT) Committee, yesterday’s announcement of the cancellation of this year’s World Dairy Expo would have felt like a body blow. The event is held annually at the Alliant Energy Center, a facility over which PWT has oversight. It attracts 60,000-65,000 visitors from more than 100 countries with a regional economic impact of $45,000,000. In other words, it is a huge, though not unanticipated blow to the Madison area. With the number of Covid cases worldwide continuing to increase, as the Graph here shows, the Expo’s cancellation was a matter of when, not if. The current logistics of international travel frequently require a 14-day quarantine period. In personal terms, it makes me wonder when JoAnna and I will be able to travel to Germany to see Eddie and Madi in person again. 

For budget purposes, the Alliant Energy Center (AEC) is classified as enterprise operation, i.e., it is self-supporting, receiving no general purpose (county tax) revenue. After 2008 burst of the housing bubble, which brought us the Great Recession, the AEC ran a deficit for 5 years. During my first year on the board (2014), it showed a profit for the first time since 2008 and continued along this path through 2018. (COVID and a change in management is probably why the 2019 report has yet to be issued.) 

In 2018, AEC was projected to bring in just under $10 million in revenue, with expenses pegged at $8.6 million, providing $140,000 in operating income, which would be transferred to a reserve fund. Even before the World Dairy Expo cancellation, the year 2020 was already shaping up to be a disaster. The facility lost its five biggest events over the course of the past month: Midwest Horse Show, Brat Fest, Dane County Fair, CrossFit Games, and World Dairy Expo. The five events comprise 42% of the facility annual attendance. Even the smaller events had been wiped off the schedule. The AEC hosts numerous area high school graduations. Middleton has held its ceremony there since 2009, when Eddie was a senior. I was surprised to see that the Swim Spa & Hot Tub sale is still on, but then discovered that a similar event is taking place at the Waukesha County Expo Center this weekend. 

Right now the AEC’s primary purpose is to serve as a Covid-19 testing site.

Read chapter 50 here