 The Sanford Center Task Force in Bemidji is recommending the city stay the course and continue using the management company VenueWorks in the future. Josh Peterson was at last night's City Council meeting where this was revealed and shares with us some of the many questions surrounding this decision. After a year of dissecting and analyzing the business and policies of the Bemidji Sanford Event Center, the task force that was created to help guide the future of the event center presented a lengthy report of their findings and came to the conclusion of what should be considered successful when it comes to the Sanford Center. The task force would like to provide some guidance to the city council and some recommendations on how to move forward with some policy and some procedures and some new ways of looking at that facility. To show what success looks like, a success pyramid was created that starts with the user experience at the top, followed by the regional recruitment, BSU hockey, and the largest portion being the community and economic impact from conferences and events. When this task force was formed, there was a lot of turnover, there was a turmoil happening at the Sanford Center, so we came in, we kind of had a number of goals. Number one was to provide stability. One of the standout moments during the presentation was when the task force made the recommendation to the city council to continue using the management company VenuWorks, who has faced multiple issues since the Sanford Center first opened its doors. The fact that we're talking about recommending VenuWorks after what we've been through, I think it's absurd. I can't imagine why we, at the minimum, were talking about management companies, we wouldn't have wanted to take a look at what's out there. During the meeting, council member Johnson shared that the event center last year ran a deficit of nearly $800,000 and questioned how that can be considered successful. I think there's a tendency for the community to look at the facility and blame VenuWorks for operational losses, and that's not fair. While no final decisions have been made yet, the clock is ticking for the Sanford Center. In Bemidji, Josh Peterson, Lakeland News. Negotiations with VenuWorks could begin as early as January, approval of a new ten-year naming rights contract is expected late next year. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.