Expo Hall is located on the Shreveport riverfront, at the southwest corner of Clyde Fant Parkway and Fannin Street, across from Sam's Town. It was Shreveport's main building for hosting large events until the Shreveport Convention Center opened in 2006. When the movie industry increased production in the Shreveport area it was turned into a soundstage. With the exception of a downtown Shreveport Police unit, the building has now been empty for over six years.
Former Shreveport mayor Adrian Perkins wanted to turn the empty building into a revenue-producing sports venue. The plan was to provide a venue for tournaments with the hopes of attracting sports events including basketball, volleyball, tumbling, wrestling, cheerleader competitions and even pickleball participants.
After replacement of the roof and renovation of the 48,000-square-foot wooden floor, the indoor sports complex can now accommodate as many as six basketball courts (four NCAA-regulation size and two middle school courts), six volleyball courts and 15 pickleball stations.
After $4.7 in renovation work completed in the fourth quarter of last year, Expo Hall has remained an empty facility with the exception of a three on three basketball game during the Humor and Harmony Festival in early August of this year. Shreveport continues to pay the expenses for utilities, insurance and maintenance on the facility.
The lofty goals for Expo Hall were to provide revenue to the city, estimated by Perkins to be $300,000 net each year. Additionally, the indoor sports facility would add additional quality of life features for Shreveport and bring more people to the downtown area. There was also hope that the city would gain revenues from name rights fees.
The city had hoped that the Shreveport Bossier Sports Commission would be a marketing agent for Expo Hall. Clearly the city did want that task much less maintenance of another city building. The ideal solution was to contract with a sports management/promotion firm that would relieve the city of all responsibilities of ownership in exchange for big bucks.
Nothing has been done by the city to market the facility to either sporting events or to a management company since completion for renovations. Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson has expressed interest in a long term lease of the facility on the terms of his Millennium Studio--$200 per month and assumption of maintenance, insurance and utility costs. The proposed lease has been on the city council's agenda for months with the only action being to continue with postponements.
An engineering facility study has recently been conducted at the expense of the Shreveport Bossier Tourist and Convention Bureau. The study noted several build out deficiencies that would need correction for maximum utilization of the building. This would of course require the expenditure of additional public dollars unless a third party lessee would provide the same as a condition of a lease.
So here is the conundrum. Keep waiting for 50 Cent like the city has been since January 1 of this year, which is much like waiting for Santa Clause or maybe even the Easter Bunny. A second option is for the city to make needed renovations and then to have SPAR or the tourist bureau to market the facility. A third option , which is probably the most practical, is to issue an RFP for a management/scheduling firm to take over operations of the facility including the costs of any needed renovations.
In the meantime, Expo Hall is another drag on the city's budget.