A few private messages have arrived at FOTS asking essentially Q: Why post weekend attendance figures, what does it matter? A: Theres over 5 million dollars in taxpayer funds invested in the Senator project, plus over 12 million in public funds in Belvedere Square in the form of public grants, with hundreds of long-suffering business owners and residents in the lurch at this juncture over The Senators largely, no-show attendance. Q: OK, but why is FOTS both promoting The Senators slate of films so much and also posting the lousy weekends attendance figures? A; Because no one else is doing it, and weekly grosses are the lifeblood of the first-run film industry, critical objective metrics that matter greatly to all concerned. They are frankly alarming numbers, and therefore the planners dont want folks to know numbers, and their implications. The Senator project is a politically wired, BDC endeavor to date. As a result theres now a sound of crickets silence in our corrupted, complicit local media about The Senator Theatre following its gala reopening and the $200K in free media launch publicity declaring the projects *success* far and wide. Q: So now what happens? A: The politicians and the BDC squelch the numerical data as best they can, and run for the hills in an upcoming election year. Senator Joan Conway and Councilman Bill Henry, for instance, both Senator Theatre project supporters and government funders, are battling over the same district State Senate seat, and neither wish to discuss The Senator Theatres economic metrics to date. It should prove to be an entertaining political contest. The BDC, City Hall and the State of MDs DHCD all projected and promised the taxpayer citizens an average of 1000 Senator patrons a day, fueling an expanding Belvedere Square commercial district thats under its own multimillion dollar expansion plan, heading south and west. Do the math, thats 350K a year in attendance promised to justify all the machinations that took place over 4 years ago, including The Senators extended 20-month shutdown and the subsequent millions in public funds granted to a private owner team designated by BDC and City Hall. Last weekend The Senators 3-day, (FSS) TOTAL was less than 1000 people altogether, only 6 weeks after the high profile re-opening. Thats the point of doing the numbers, the numbers our elected officials and local, compliant, forth-estate media watchdogs are ignoring on purpose.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 21:00:11 +0000
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