From an outsider’s perspective, but one who worked in a turnkey concert hall back East (1900 seats), it appeared that the issue with the Cultural Park venue was strictly managerial in that the acts were not booked far enough in advance to sustain and make it viable in the world of entertainment venues. A professional director could have overcome the booking issue with Phoenix and Flagstaff. I’m sure this was just one issue because it seemed there were so many people involved in maintaining the Park.

I don’t know the sequence of events surrounding the building of the time share resort and the venue itself but whoever decided that an entertainment center next to a resort (or even neighborhoods) was okay, needs to have their head examined.

I agree that the Cultural Park should be returned to the Forest Service. We already have the Sedona Performing Arts Center across the street at the high school and since that is not full 24/7, it would appear that Sedona does not need another venue, outdoor or otherwise.

Mr. Mayor and City Council and the rest of you in Sedona,

It’s Saturday night on Memorial Day weekend and there’s less traffic uptown and in west Sedona than during a typical weekday. There wasn’t any traffic to speak of yesterday, last night, or today.

There were no crowds at any of the restaurants. We went into Barking Frog at 7:30ish and it was a moderately busy evening. What I’d call a typical weekend night.

Every roundabout from the freeway to west Sedona was clear, no back up or string of cars waiting anywhere. Came back through a half hour ago and everything was the same and buttoning down for the night.

Again, let me ask. Where are the tourists, you remember, the tourists that the Chamber says are here by the millions and being the same group that spent millions getting them here?

I would ask every single business owner to call the Mayor and council and tell them what percentage of decline in sales this weekend was over same time last year. Consider it your civic duty if you don’t want more taxes.

Bob, VOC

The location was ideal to its proximity to supporting film festival venues & it renovated an old complex rather than build an unnecessary new building. Those involved with the remodel concept should be applauded not forgetting the city, architects, designers, engineers, construction crews, interior designers, and more that kept jobs & $$ in the city. Pat S. and the Sedona Film Festival groups are to be applauded. Maybe we should turn the city over to them?

First of all, the Cultural Park had turned a corner, and the season it closed was the first that we were “in the black.” It came as a complete surprise to all employees that it was closing – we found out it was closing on a Tuesday, and it was shut down the following Friday.

The Cultural Park was built to seat 5,000 people. Many on the board of directors wanted to have Tony Bennett play Sedona, but he does not book a show in venues that hold less than 5,000. There were fewer than 400 parking spaces, and those parking spaces were hodge-podge all over the desert surrounding the park.

With a venue of that size, we ran into issues booking talent due to “non-compete” clauses. We could book no one who was playing Phoenix or Flagstaff.

The time-share next door was an albatross around the Park’s neck. The CP had to be more quiet than the traffic on 89A. A timeshare manager would sit on the balcony closest to the park with a noise meter. Each time a cymbol would be hit, or a car horn would blast, etc, the Cultural Park received a $500 fine. There were many times the park would have make A LOT more money during the show, but these petty fines really bit into any profit.

No mention in the informative piece about Georgia Frontiera, who was very generous with the park. As mentioned, there was supposed to be parking, an arts center, a restaurant, and gift shop. The Cultural Park box office shared space with Park Rangers – and future plans included a really nice USFS visitor’s center (which was later built, not in Sedona, but in the Village of Oak Creek).

Georgia wanted to build a parking garage. I personally talked to her about this. She wanted to buy the land in front of the high school for that purpose. But the city council did not think it was appropriate to “see a parking garage the first thing coming into Sedona.” Obviously, they had no problem with building more times shares though.

A few years ago the City Council wanted to get the Cultural Park up and running again – a noble choice – but they wanted to build a senior housing complex next door to the park. Who in their right mind would plan to put senior housing next door to a rock and roll venue? This is the nutso thinking that is keeping the Cultural Park from being brought back to life.

No one working at the park, besides the manager, even knew the park was for sale. When it was sold to Tennyson for a ridiculously low price, we were all shocked. Had I known about the property being for sale, I am sure I could have spoke with a few of the directors to come together to purchase the park and it would have been kept open. Right away Tennyson wanted to build time shares or some other development, but was declined by the City Council (hooray). He got mad and said he would let it fall into disrepair and give the land to his grand children one day. So, that’s his plan – unless the City, held hostage to his demands, relents.

I would love to see the Cultural Park open and I would love to see the vision complete as originally planned. I remember seeing the artist renderings and thinking what a jewel we had here. But, like so many other bad-door dealings in Sedona, this too, is cherry pie in the sky with vanilla ice cream.

However, a major point is that a solid construction design, business and operations plans are needed -AND of course solid construction.

Remember the dome failure at Posse grounds was due to multiple factors: original bad design of arch, change of plans/bad supervision, and deceptive criminal subcontractors’ construction throughout. Otherwise another failure at all levels.

In addition to the major failure of Barbara’s Dome, there was the resounding defeat by the voters with regard to the Mayor and Council’s approval of the turn-around from ADOT of Highway 89A through West Sedona.

And what about the Mayor collecting campaign funds even though he was running for re-election unopposed during the last election?

I agree with James about development of the Cultural Park: “More Sedona insanity.”