Painfully slow start for Miami center
The Orange County Performing Arts Center has received its share of audience gripes about sight lines, climate control and such at its new Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, but things could be much worse. Consider the plight of Miami’s Carnival Center, a three-venue performance mecca that also opened last fall, designed by the same team -- architect Cesar Pelli and acoustician Russell Johnson -- that brought us Segerstrom Concert Hall.
The Miami Herald reports that the $473-million Carnival Center for the Performing Arts, named for a cruise line, is already sinking deep into the red, with ticket income 56% under projections, leading to a $3-million deficit.
The center’s chief executive is readying a “disaster plan” that would shut it down for 30 days this summer to save costs.
More likely, the Herald says, is a bailout by county government, funneling additional hotel tax revenue into the Carnival Center to keep it afloat.
-- Mike Boehm
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