There isn’t a moneymaker in the bunch.

Lewiston city councilors voted Tuesday on a $550,000 bailout of the Androscoggin Bank Colisee. Portland and Bangor’s aging facilities are also subsidized heavily by taxpayers.

And as long as publicly funded arenas in Portland, Lewiston, Augusta and Bangor compete for slivers of Maine’s entertainment scene, taxpayers will support these venues with hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“The average promoter isn’t going to play Cumberland County and Lewiston,” Mike Dyer, who manages the Bangor Auditorium, told the Sun Journal. “They play Lewiston and Bangor or Cumberland County and Lewiston, or just Augusta.”

This competition is unhealthy, and raises the question whether Maine needs four small competing taxpayer-funded venues. The arenas in Bangor, Portland, Lewiston or Augusta are not large enough to ensure fiscal sustainability, as managers say the secret to success is seats.

With approximately 23,000 seats, these four public arenas have a total capacity slightly larger than the maximum crowd at the largest venue in Boston, the Garden. (Which, perhaps non-coincidentally, is sponsored by a Maine-based bank, TD Banknorth.)

Of this group, the Colisee is perhaps the weakest. It’s by far the smallest – 3,500 seats – and sandwiched by the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland and the Augusta Civic Center. Its takeover by the city of Lewiston was debated, but agreed upon to save a community’s resource.

It’s moving in the right direction. Lewiston Maineiac attendance is consistent, and the team’s success should keep the Colisee consistently filled. Global Spectrum is a little over a year into its contract to manage the building and needs more time to make its marketing strategy work.

Still, the Colisee remains under scrutiny. Eyebrows were raised when Renee Bernier, the president of the Lewiston City Council, participated in Tuesday’s meeting rather than recusing herself. Bernier’s company provides Colisee security during Maineiacs’ games, which could be construed as a conflict of interest.

Bernier has responsibly recused herself from previous votes regarding the Colisee and the Maineiacs, and we’re confident in her decision-making. But given the Colisee’s struggles, the appearance of impropriety by the council should be avoided, and we urge her to err on caution’s side in the future.

Because these public arenas are throbbing headaches. They often are bolstered by economic impact figures, but several studies have disputed these claims as fiscal politicking. Economists and think tanks like the Brookings Institution have long maintained that claims of economic benefits from sports arenas are overblown.

They do provide intangible benefit, such as civic pride, which might be enough for Lewiston to support what will likely become annual subsidies for the Colisee. Long-term, however, the financial future of Maine’s public arenas must be addressed.

Supporting four arenas might be a luxury taxpayers cannot continue to afford.