[Spoiler: Op Ed Piece] Jacobson Center To Open for 2010 Iowa State Fair

Here's something you don't hear everyday. Work on the new horse arena at the Iowa State Fairgrounds is going to be completed early. Construction. Of a multi-million dollar facility. Finishing early. I had to read the letter from the Iowa State Fair four times to make sure it said the horse shows at the 2010 Fair would be in the Jacobson Center. Was the date a typo? No. Should it have said the facility [which we were told would not be ready until October] would "not" be ready. No. It really is going to be finished and the horse shows are really going to be in it.

Hopefully there will be other positive factors that follow suit. Like the astronomical daily rental fee of the building coming back down to [Iowa] Earth. Meaning if your horse show can't afford to put a zero behind your normal facility rental, you will still be showing horses in the egg shaped Pavilion.

But not to worry. The State Fair Board is not worried. When it is not booked for horse shows, they intend to use the Jacobson Center for concerts, trade shows and [possibly] sporting events. Gosh, when you have to rent the Pavilion for your horse show, where no spectators will come because the metal seats paralyze them from the ilium down after 30 minutes, you can go on over to the State of the Art [Horse] Arena that you couldn't afford to rent and pay $50 to hear Jason Brown. Woo, hoo.

I'm excited to see how this turns out. The Fair Board tells the [horse] industry and the public- with a nudge and a wink- that they want to attract national [horse] shows. This is very thinly veiled. Because they don't have enough stalls to attract national [horse] shows. And I guess the trade show, concert and sports fraternities didn't have $3.5 million from Richard Jacobson to leverage a further $6.5 million from the Blue Ribbon Foundation to build a Not Livestock Related Events Center. I know! Lets knock down that worthless outdoor horse arena that we can't get much rental money from, build a cracking big arena and attach it to the back of the horse barn and say it is going to be a horse arena...

We'll go enjoy the horse shows at the Jacobson Center for the 2010 Fair. But I'll booking seats for the Monster Truck International Finals at the Jacobson Center in 2011. Or at the Brooks and Dunn Out Of Retirement Show in 2012. I doubt very much that I'll ever see you at the Jacobson Center for the Morgan Horse World Championships or say, the New Moon Carriage Classic.

[Big, Heavy Sigh]

Have a great Memorial Day weekend,

Michelle Blackler

Serendipity

www.hossbiz.com

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