by Andrew Walden

Silly talk of profits at the Hawaii Convention Center was just a fad from the dimly remembered days of 2016.

Released today, a State Auditor’s report shows the Convention Center ‘s operating loss has jumped up from an anemic $4.3M in 2017 to a much more robust $8.3M in calendar year 2018. 

The Convention Center also managed to boost personnel expenses to $5.95M – up $330K.

Overall revenue relaxed from 2017’s stressful $17.6M to a much more easy-going $13.9M for 2018.

Meanwhile, Convention Center management showed its true prowess by making expenses jump from $21.9M to $22.3M.

The Convention Center and its payroll stay afloat thanks to contributions from the HTA. 

In 2017 HTA gave the Convention Center $16.9M and the Convention Center stupidly gave back $10.5M for something called “completed events revenue” -- leaving a net of $6.4M. 

But in 2018 the picture is much brighter.  The HTA gave the Convention Center $20.2M and, with fewer annoying events in the way, the Convention Center gave back only $8.9M producing a net of $11.3M.

That’s an extra $4.9M.  As California Governor Jerry Brown once said, “Less is more.”

PDF: Audit Summary

PDF: Full Report