{"id":34056,"date":"2025-07-15T08:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T13:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/?p=34056"},"modified":"2025-07-15T08:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T13:35:10","slug":"another-skeptic-speaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/15\/another-skeptic-speaks\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Skeptic Speaks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sgfcitizen.org\/economy-growth\/springfields-forgotten-palace-a-cautionary-tale-for-todays-convention-center-dream\/\" target=\"_new\">Springfield\u2019s forgotten palace: A cautionary tale for today\u2019s convention center dream<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Springfield\u2019s current push to build a modern convention center complex echoes a similar campaign that began 120 years ago and resulted in an impressive, innovative facility.<\/p>\n<p>However, today\u2019s promoters should hope that history doesn\u2019t completely repeat itself, because that early 20th-century convention center was financially troubled and only lasted a couple of decades.<\/p>\n<p>The earlier idea to build a huge auditorium and exhibition space was prompted in part by rivalry with neighboring Joplin, which in 1900 had a slightly greater population than Springfield \u2014 26,000 vs 23,000. By 1905, the two cities were neck-and-neck in size, and Springfield businessmen and politicians began dreaming aloud about what they termed a \u201cconvention hall\u201d that would focus attention on Springfield and draw regional and even national organizations to gather here.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Spoiler alert: It will be even boondogglier today, because in decades&#8217; of existence, it will require additional millions in updates.<\/p>\n<p>I just posted my skepticism <a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/09\/the-racket-moves-into-springfield\/\" target=\"_new\">last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Springfield\u2019s forgotten palace: A cautionary tale for today\u2019s convention center dream: Springfield\u2019s current push to build a modern convention center complex echoes a similar campaign that began 120 years ago and resulted in an impressive, innovative facility. However, today\u2019s promoters should hope that history doesn\u2019t completely repeat itself, because that early 20th-century convention center was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3334,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3334"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34056"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34057,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34056\/revisions\/34057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}