DATE: Thursday, July 10, 1997               TAG: 9707100013

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   73 lines

NAUTICUS ALL AT SEA

Among consultants' recommendations for reshaping Nauticus - The National Maritime Center in downtown Norfolk - is one calling for shifting the virtual-reality deep-diving experience from Scotland's Loch Ness to the depths of the seas, where mountain ranges stud the ocean floor and bizarre creatures live, struggle and die in perpetual darkness.

The Loch Ness game, which invites visitors to salvage Loch Ness Monster eggs, is fun, one consultant told reporter Jon Glass, but off point. According to the consultants, that point ought to be not fantasy but reality - the globe-encircling ocean and the technology humans use to explore, navigate and harvest it.

Nauticus' image and mission have been ill-defined from the outset. The handicap is surmountable, but is this proposal by consultants to focus on ocean technology the answer? City Manager Jim Oliver says, ``We're sold.''

But the city has been sold before. The question is, will the public and taxpayers buy in? That needs to be carefully studied before proceeding to spend more millions on the troubled attraction.

The city promised that Nauticus would pay its way through gate receipts, which it has yet to do. Not only has Nauticus failed to entice enough customers to meet operating expenses and debt service, it also has seen attendance dwindle.

The slide in attendance contrasts embarrassingly with the progress of Virginia Beach's Virginia Marine Science Museum, where attendance now tops 650,000 a year. VMSM doesn't generate sufficient revenue on site to pay its debt service either, but officials never promised it would.

VMSM more than pays for itself in direct and indirect revenue. And by that measure, Nauticus also is successful. The $500,000 that Norfolk taxpayers are scheduled to pony up this year is offset by parking fees and hotel and meal taxes traceable to Nauticus.

Nauticus is also an increasingly prized public space, the scene of more and more group activities. Still, the long-term viability of Nauticus depends on its finding a profitable and popular niche. So far, the latest strategy lacks reassuring detail.

The proposed oceanic focus logically encompasses Hampton Roads and the Elizabeth River. Sea-linked technology and commerce are big components of Nauticus as it is. Making them even more so would not be difficult, but would such a focus be a crowd-pleaser? Has it got sufficient pizazz?

Nauticus, after all, is in competition for tourist time and money with gee-whiz warships at Norfolk Naval Station, sharks and other undersea life at the Virginia Beach Marine Science Museum, the recreated 18th Century Colonial Williamsburg and thrills at Busch Gardens.

Confronted with these options, can hundreds of thousands of tourists and conventioneers really be enticed to a museum featuring ocean technology? Are the turnstiles going to spin as people rush to see exhibits on the latest wrinkle in shipbuilding and ocean commerce? At first blush, it sounds like a very hard sell.

It isn't easy to envision what the billboards would proclaim, how the concept would be marketed, what the exhibits would actually look like. It is easy to imagine that ocean technology would seem pretty tame alongside war, revolution, roller coasters and Jaws.

Stranger things have happened, of course. Crowds flock to Epcot's simplified science and sundry technological marvels, but it is a Disney production bearing Mickey's imprimatur. Undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau thrilled millions with films of the world beneath the waves. Spotlighting the oceans can stir excitement, as did Nauticus' Titanic exhibit earlier this year.

But execution is everything in such an undertaking - and money. To revamp Nauticus as suggested will cost, depending on which consultant one believes, between $1 milllion and $6 million.

Norfolk's treasury is strapped. Some creative fund raising in the private sector seems inescapable. But first, the concept has to be fleshed out and sold to the public. The latest incarnation for Nauticus needs to be designed and test marketed by pros, not touted by amateurs. This is the last chance for Nauticus. The city can't afford to get it wrong again.

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