CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A crew was busy outside the American Bank Center along Shoreline Boulevard on Friday. They were working to make the first of millions of dollars worth of improvements to help dress up the facility.
"It's very important for our community that we have a facility that is maintained, well maintained, and that we make certain that we have an arena that can lend itself to even more events being scheduled because events being scheduled here generates economic growth for local restaurants," Mayor Paulette Guajardo said.
While the City is working on the cosmetics outside the building, inside, everyone is hoping to bring more top entertainers to town like Barry Manilow.
OVG360, who manages the American Bank Center, said City Type A funds are being used as an incentive to draw in more of those top showmen.
"We'll use it to incentivize promoters to bring events in very similar to what Visit Corpus Christi does on the convention center side," OVG360 General Manager Daniel Melise said. "We have the ability to do on the arena side where we can incentivize groups to bring their events here."
He also told 3NEWS that his team is focusing on building relationships with agencies and management who lay out big-name tours. Some of those acts are those who used to come to town, and in other instances, Corpus Christi isn’t on their radar.
"With us getting in with the agencies and management, we get in a little bit earlier sometimes, and we can get into those conversations to where we get built into the routing we've had," Melise said. "Obviously, we're getting some names in here that, that may not have come through previously."
Council man Roland Barrera is hoping that the millions of dollars the City is putting into improvements here will eventually pay off.
"Well, we can probably look to having it maybe and, you know, one great act a month, you know, as soon as we get those improvements, we've just gotta show those acts and the management company that we're gonna reinvest in a great facilities, so that way they can provide better resources, better accommodations for those first class acts," he said.