Civic centers cost money.

Mike Dyer said the Bangor City Council is – sometimes begrudgingly – used to it.

“In the time I’ve been here, we’ve been the gamut of outlooks, to ‘Close the place down’ to ‘It’s much too valuable to the region, it’s worth a quarter of a million (a year.) It’s a vital part of what Bangor has to offer,'” said Dyer, director of Bass Park, which includes the city auditorium.

Neither Dyer nor Steve Crane, Cumberland County Civic Center general manager in Portland, was too surprised to read about the financial straits of the Androscoggin Bank Colisee this week.

Crane had an operating surplus last year – $200,000 that went right back into building projects – and on Monday asked a county board for $236,000 next year to pay for debt and improvements.

Dyer said the Bass Park complex’s operating budget ran into the red as much as a half-million dollars when it oversaw the racetrack. These days, it’s closer to $250,000 or less, plus debt.

A new Lewiston city audit found the Colisee has fallen $1 million short in day-to-day expenses over the last two years. It’s not seeing the number of shows and big events it needs to buoy the bottom line.

The city bought the arena in January 2004 after the relationship between the Maineiacs, the first U.S. expansion team in a Canadian junior league, and the former owner soured.

“On most days, we end up losing money on a Mainiacs game,” said City Administrator Jim Bennett. “Maineiacs had a lousy year last year, for all intents and purposes.”

It’s been tough to break into the event market, he said. There’s some competition from Augusta and Portland, and the Colisee has to re-establish its reputation.

“In the eyes of the promoters, who may be in Florida or L.A., they don’t know that the facility’s changed,” Bennett said. And, given its size, “We’re not going to get the big names” unless groups want a small venue to kick off a tour and work out kinks.

“I think that building is in a tough market,” Dyer said. “The average promoter isn’t going to play Cumberland County and Lewiston. They play Lewiston and Bangor or Cumberland County and Lewiston, or just Augusta.”

He and Crane agreed: Success comes down to seats.

“Acts have egos,” Dyer said. They’ll pick an arena with 7,000 seats versus 3,500 on revenue potential alone: “It doesn’t even become a matter of whether they’re going to sell them all or not.”

“If there were 15,000 seats in Lewiston and we had 6,000, Lewiston would be getting all the concerts,” echoed Crane.

The Colisee has 15 shows or events booked for the next six months, everything from high school graduations to ICE Motorcycle Racing, but only a handful are what Bennett would consider large, money-makers.

He’s said the Colisee needs 24 to 36 a year to break even. It’s projected to lose more than $300,000 when the books close in July 2007.

If you lose money but it brings people downtown who wouldn’t have come otherwise – who shop and eat – then is it worth it? That’s the question, Dyer said.

“Hopefully, the city council decides what their philosophy is about the building – then worry about the money,” he added.