The Manager of the David S. Palmer Arena, Peter Blackmon, says once the Festival of Trees ends on Wednesday the Arena will go back to hosting hockey.
”You know we’re not really aggressive after shows right now,” says Blackmon. ”We’re hoping that some promoters will come our way. We made a couple of offers on some shows and unfortunately they passed. So we’ll go back to our, sort of, regular schedule. Some wrestling tournaments coming up…ice racing’s coming-up in February. But there’s really nothing officially on the books. We’ve got a couple of things that we can’t announce yet,” added Blackmon.
Meanwhile Blackmon remains frustrated that grant monies for capital improvements at the Arena have still not been released by the state.
”They’re still going through the budget process, and we’re the losers in that. While two grown men fight in Springfield, we’re suffering back here. And it’s unfortunate. You know a year ago we displaced the County (Basketball) Tournament for a day or two because of a roof leak. And if you would have told me that we wouldn’t have the roof fixed a year later – given that we had the grant coming – I would have laughed. And here we are going into the next County Tournament a year later, and we’re hoping the roof doesn’t leak on the gym floor,” added Blackmon during an interview with VermilionCountyFirst.com News.
Blackmon adds local legislators have been working to get the funds released. But he notes other civic centers across the state have already received their money.
”We’re sort of the last civic center that hasn’t received all of the grant funds. All of the civic centers in the state were given their capital awards. So we’re still sitting here like – goofs — waiting for our grant – our capital improvement funds. And until that happens, we’re just hoping it doesn’t rain ever…ever.”
(Peter Blackmon is the General Manager of the David S. Palmer Arena.)
