Staff EDITORIAL-Theater plan ill-advised

Durham's request that Duke contribute $10 million to a new downtown cultural center is unreasonable. The theater plan shows little promise of success and is a waste of Durham's resources. To date, the University has wisely refused to contribute the money. It should continue to stand its ground and refuse to allow the city to bully it into giving money to a poorly planned project.

A large scale auditorium and concert venue--the 4,000 seat theater would be operated by Clear Channel--would be a nice addition to downtown Durham. A new theater would also be a good home for the American Dance Festival, which is really why Duke is considering contributing to the project in the first place. At this time, however, building such a theater is financially unsound, and the city must get its priorities in order.

Constructing the theater, which will be jointly funded from public and private sources, will not cost the city as the money comes from a hotel tax specifically levied for the theater, and it has ambitious goals in terms of the economic revival of the downtown area. It is questionable, however, whether a large concert venue downtown will actually attract more businesses.

It would be wise of Durham city officials to use the Durham Bulls Athletic Park as an example of why this theater will not be successful. The city hoped that the construction of the Durham Bulls stadium and surrounding areas would revitalize the downtown area, but that development has, in fact, cost the city money.

Durham should also look at other large concert venues in similar towns. Many of those venues have struggled financially and drained money from their host cities. There is no reason to believe that Durham would succeed where other towns have failed.

The city has failed to produce a convincing plan that the theater's outcome will be any different. Thus far, the theater project has been poorly planned and managed. With only a few months left before the deal is set to be finalized, Durham has taken minimal effort to raise private funding for the theater. The city also failed to get adequate public input before moving forward with its plans. The project has no realistic source of funding. It is ill-advised and has a much greater probability of resulting in a financial disaster than a success.

That is not to say that the plan is a complete waste. It is admirable that the city is pursuing cultural improvements, but a new theater is not what the city needs right now. The city should continue to suppourt the arts, and having a cultural fund for arts programming is something that should be implemented even if the theater is not built. In fact, it would be wise for the city to take some smaller steps toward improving the state of arts and culture in Durham before jumping into a huge project.

The theater plan, simply put, is a bad investment for Duke and for Durham. The city should focus on fixing problems before investing in a large new project. Duke should save the $10 million and consider devoting it to the development of social and artistic space on campus in the future.