Tim Riddle

Staff File Photo by Dan Henry
Cheerleaders attend an event this year at the Chattanooga Convention Center.
Events such as this have helped generate an estimated economic impact of
$8.06 million this year.

The Chattanooga Convention Center reported its second consecutive month of growth following two months of shrinking revenue.

Executive Director Tim Riddle said at Wednesday's meeting of Carter Street Corp., which oversees the Convention Center, that the results are promising.

"October was a very good month," he said. "July and August were both down and September and October were both up."

Events at the facility generated a net income of $416,013 in October, an almost 45 percent increase from the $287,368 in October 2008.

The Convention Center fueled an estimated economic impact to the region of $2.43 million, bringing the year-to-date impact estimate to $8.06 million.

Mr. Riddle said economic impact is down about $750,000 from this time last year, but the facility is playing catch-up after a slow July and August.

The Convention Center hosted 59 events during October that covered 88 event days, an average of 2.83 events for each day of the month, said Mike Shuford, assistant director.

In October 2008, the facility hosted 46 events covering 70 event days, he said.

More than 3,300 people attended six conventions at the facility which Mr. Shuford said led to an increase in revenue.

The facility's monthly report shows revenues of $691,000, an increase of about $130,000 from the previous year. Gross banquet revenue totaled $363,000, which was more than 50 percent of the total revenue for the month.

Mr. Riddle said the Convention Center is operating as lean as possible, with an open full-time position and as few part-time hours as possible.

"On the expense side, we are really holding our own," he said. "We have trimmed about as much as we can."

Mr. Shuford said sales activity for future events is beginning to pick up, including 11 site inspections last week.

"I can't remember a week with that much convention sales activity," he said.