Lubbock’s Municipal Coliseum & Auditorium Are Dead, And Low Voter Turnout Helped Kill Them
Well, that's all folks!
The Lubbock Municipal Coliseum and Auditorium are gone. For a topic that had such passion on both sides, the overall lack of voter turnout really does bother me.
I saw many incredible shows, games, monster trucks, and graduations at the Coliseum and Auditorium. I am not sure where I will see some of the shows and events that will not be held in the United Supermarkets Arena or the new performing arts center. (Shows that aren't classy enough would be my thoughts as to why certain shows will never come to town.) But that's over now.
The City of Lubbock, both as a government agency and as a group of people, has had a long history of tearing down buildings due to age, or the fact that the building wasn't modern looking anymore, or were too costly to fix. And this is yet another example of that. The building was built to last. It was built to civil defense standard, which means it would last a very long time if it had been taken care of. But the city defied the wishes of the citizens many years ago by deferring the maintenance on the facility and giving the money to the Civic Center. (The city should really outsource facility maintenance to a third party like the Lubbock school district did, maybe then we wouldn't have buildings that are always falling apart.)
But that doesn't matter anymore; it's all over. Low voter turnout shows that a lot of people just didn't care about the fate of this facility, and now Texas Tech gets to do with it as they please. And what does Lubbock get out of this? Two fewer venues for performances.
So much for redevelopment and making the city a nicer place to be!
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