Don't get me wrong, I've been a fan of the Natural Science Center since it was a rinky dink little thing out there on a country road before the City of Greensboro grew up around it. And I have no doubt that the addition of the new SciQuarium will rock! I won't deny that it has already become a Top 15 North Carolina museum and historic attraction or that it sees more visitors than Grandfather Mountain, the Battleship North Carolina and the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
I am more than willing to believe it when Glenn Dobrogosz says the Greensboro Science Center will produce a potential $25 million annual economic impact in Greensboro. Really, I am. Okay, I'd like to believe that but I can't.
You see, how many hotel rooms will visitors to the Greensboro Science Center fill each year? How many will fly in via Piedmont Triad International Airport? How many will vacation in Greensboro? How many people who live beyond the borders of Guilford County even know the Greensboro Science Center is even here?
As great as it is, and it is great. Our children deserve to have the Greensboro Science Center and it was the right decision to build it. But when it comes to economic development, 99.9% of Greensboro will never feel the effects. You see, reality is this: many of those visitors go to the science center more than once a year so the actual number of visitors is far less and secondly, because they have no way to keep up with it there's no way for them to know if their visitors came from out of town or across the street.
So you see, that potential $25 million annual economic impact isn't really any increase in new economic activity, it's simply local money changing hands like it was going to change hands anyway. Only it gets spent at the Greensboro Science Center instead of say the Greensboro Performing Arts Center or perhaps a Downtown restaurant, get it?
Now when you can think up something that will bring in visitors from all over the country. Then we can talk annual economic impact. Until then, you're just shuffling money around.
I am more than willing to believe it when Glenn Dobrogosz says the Greensboro Science Center will produce a potential $25 million annual economic impact in Greensboro. Really, I am. Okay, I'd like to believe that but I can't.
You see, how many hotel rooms will visitors to the Greensboro Science Center fill each year? How many will fly in via Piedmont Triad International Airport? How many will vacation in Greensboro? How many people who live beyond the borders of Guilford County even know the Greensboro Science Center is even here?
As great as it is, and it is great. Our children deserve to have the Greensboro Science Center and it was the right decision to build it. But when it comes to economic development, 99.9% of Greensboro will never feel the effects. You see, reality is this: many of those visitors go to the science center more than once a year so the actual number of visitors is far less and secondly, because they have no way to keep up with it there's no way for them to know if their visitors came from out of town or across the street.
So you see, that potential $25 million annual economic impact isn't really any increase in new economic activity, it's simply local money changing hands like it was going to change hands anyway. Only it gets spent at the Greensboro Science Center instead of say the Greensboro Performing Arts Center or perhaps a Downtown restaurant, get it?
Now when you can think up something that will bring in visitors from all over the country. Then we can talk annual economic impact. Until then, you're just shuffling money around.
