The new math of convention madness

By Jim Stergios
July 17th, 2007

The Boston Business Journal today reports that the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority is issuing an RFP to expand the Bonston Convention & Exhibition Center.

The request for proposals is for the development of a master plan for the BCEC that will provide an envelope for future expansion of the facility.

Gloria Larson calls the BCEC “as successful as we hoped.” Golly, Gloria, one might call that a pretty big plea from low expectations.  She notes, in fact, that

The building has exceeded our expectations, and it is the right time to explore what we should do with the undeveloped portion of the property. A master plan is the best way to start the dialogue.

In a previous post, I noted that while Gloria is perfectly giddy about the Convention Center Authority’s 2006 Annual Report celebrating reaching 202,000 room nights at the BCEC, the facts are: 

• The BCEC is currently attracting just over 1/4 of the 794,000 room nights originally promised as part of the project;
• less than 1/2 of the between 612,000 and 697,000 hotel room nights called for in a later, “reasonable,” revised Price Waterhouse Coopers report.

Oh, and then there’s the fact that even the cumulative total of room nights at both the BCEC and the Hynes is just over 500,000.  Hmm,  800,000 room nights promised and 202,000 delivered.  That is “exceeded our expectations”?

I hope that Gloria’s not counting the number of new students at Bentley with the same new math.