THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 10, 1995 TAG: 9509100047
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 152 lines
Every day this summer, on the average, more than a thousand people visited the Virginia Marine Science Museum. And every day, on the average, Virginia Beach taxpayers forked out $2,740 to keep the place going.
Every day this summer, on the average, more than a thousand people visited Nauticus, the gray battleship-like structure on an Elizabeth River pier.
But Norfolk taxpayers are not expected to pay a dime in direct subsidies this year.
So why is it that Virginia Marine Science Museum is considered a big success, helping lure tourists to spend more money and time at the Beach, and providing an attraction for locals on a rainy day?
Nauticus, meanwhile, is frequently criticized as a financial dead weight that eventually will drag down Norfolk taxpayers.
The difference in status of the two museums has to do more with the climate and conditions under which each was started, say leaders in both cities, than their admission or revenue numbers.
Norfolk leaders pursued the construction of Nauticus despite serious citizen opposition, which took the form of a petition asking for a referendum on Nauticus and Harbor Park.
To neutralize opposition, Nauticus was promoted as able to draw 850,000 visitors a year and pay its own way. When it failed to do either, when the City Council had to lend the facility more money last year and apply Nauticus tax revenue toward its debt payments, the project was considered in trouble, if not a failure.
The Virginia Beach museum was never launched with any assumption of self-sufficiency, or against similar opposition.
Nauticus' most recent attendance numbers once again failed to approach those in initial projections. The city drew 41,000 visitors in July, about half what would be needed to draw 850,000 visitors a year. It drew 38,000 in August, despite Hurricane Felix driving away a few visitors.
With the obsession of the bottom line, Nauticus supporters say, the principal reasons the facility was built may be forgotten.
``It's unfair to say, `We're going to hold you to those numbers,' '' said Sam Rogers, marketing director for the city and recently co-director of Nauticus. ``Within the industry, Nauticus has a reputation as a fantastic place, but locally it's become tangled up in this numbers game.''
Nauticus was built to help attract people to the waterfront.
If success comes from helping revitalize a struggling downtown, Nauticus might be considered on its way, say its leaders.
``On several weekends recently when there has been absolutely nothing else going on in downtown, we've drawn 3,500 to 4,000 people,'' said Bill Luther, acting director of Nauticus. ``Those people have paid to park, gone to different restaurants - we've even noticed an increase in attendance at MacArthur Memorial.''
Although Nauticus has not met its ambitious initial goals, its attendance is comparable to that of the Virginia Marine Science Museum and of the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton.
The marine museum, which cost $8.5 million and has been open a decade, drew 51,000 people in July. Nauticus, which cost $52 million, drew 41,000. The air and space center, which cost $29.5 million, drew between 30,000 and 40,000 in July, its director said.
But the Virginia Beach center has the advantage of being minutes away from the resort strip and beach and their hundreds of thousands of seasonal visitors. Norfolk and Hampton are not usually thought of as tourist destinations in the same breath as Virginia Beach.
The three centers also differ dramatically in how they are funded.
Virginia Beach taxpayers pay the Marine Science Museum's $500,000 debt service annually, plus $500,000 for the center's electric bill, grounds maintenance and other expenses. The center is halfway through an ambitious $35 million expansion, which will include a 3-D IMAX theater and a 300,000-gallon aquarium for ocean marine life. The city is paying $30 million of the cost, with no expectation that future revenues will pay it back.
C. Mac Rawls, the museum's director, said the problem with Nauticus was unrealistic projections.
``Their initial projections were just extremely difficult for anyone to meet,'' Rawls said. ``I've been to every major aquarium in the country. I don't know of any that are paying their capital costs as well as their operating costs. It just doesn't happen.''
More than two-thirds of the cost of the $29.5 million Air and Space Center was paid by state and city funds, said Kim Maher, chief executive officer. The center expects to pay its $2.9 million operating budget without city help.
Nauticus' $52 million construction cost and its $4.1 million annual operating cost is paid through a mix of museum revenue and outside donations. In addition, the center's taxes, an estimated $575,000 last year, have been applied to its debt payments.
But so far, taxpayers have not been asked to pay construction or operating costs, said Luther, the acting director.
Recently, Rogers, the marketing director, said museum leaders were focusing less on attendance but more on the museum's revenues and whether its bills were being paid. This emphasis, to some degree, undercuts the original intention of building the center, which was to draw as many people as possible downtown.
Cities spend money on lots of attractions and resources for their citizens - libraries, museums, arts group and cultural institutions among them.
Portsmouth supports the Children's Museum and the Naval Shipyard Museum. Virginia Beach underwrites the Marine Science Museum and the Francis Land House. These institutions are supported by taxpayers with the assumption that they will benefit individual citizens and make their city a better place in which to live and work.
In keeping with its goal of being the ``economic and cultural hub'' of the region, Norfolk supports the widest array of cultural institutions of any city in Hampton Roads. They include the Chrysler Museum, Wells Theatre, Harrison Opera House, Scope and the Virginia Zoo. For example, the city expects to contribute $1.2 million to the zoo and $1.7 million to the Chrysler Museum this year.
The city is spending $3.9 million to pay Nauticus's debt service this year, but the center is paying this back. Financial help from a private foundation will cover most of this bill. The city also supports the center indirectly through its Virginia Waterfront Campaign and other marketing efforts.
National museum leaders say the focus on Nauticus' financial stability may be too narrow.
``Certainly most science centers are measured by other things than just the number of visitors, and whether it earns enough revenue at the gate to pay its expenses,'' said Bonnie VanDorn, executive director of the Association of Science-Technology Centers in Washington.
VanDorn said a number of new science centers have failed to meet overly rosy initial projections. A better standard of success, said VanDorn, is whether Nauticus is fulfilling its larger role in the community.
``It's similar to a library, that the community is enriched by having it available to everyone,'' VanDorn said. ``And you can't measure this solely by the number of people. Science centers are part of the community infrastructure.''
What's unclear is whether Norfolk residents will ever embrace Nauticus the way communities sometimes cherish their zoo or aquarium.
Jim Janata, past president of the Norfolk Federation of Civic Leagues, said the center got off on the wrong start when the council ignored people's petitions for a referendum on whether to build the project.
``I think citizens had a right to be able to say yes or no for an expenditure of that size,'' Janata said. ``I think they were disappointed they weren't asked.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
NAUTICUS
VIRGINIA MARINE SCIENCE MUSEUM
VIRGINIA AIR AND SPACE CENTER
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
Photo
MORT FRYMAN/Staff file
Nauticus was built to attract people to the waterfront - not to make
money. If success comes from helping revitalize a struggling
downtown, Nauticus might be viewed as being on its way, its leaders
say.
by CNB