Capitol Theatre Causes Business Boom in Wheeling - WTRF-TV

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WHEELING -- The Capitol Theatre has been open almost two months and has already had a positive economic impact on the Ohio Valley.

Just a couple weeks ago, the theater hosted it's first Broadway show, "Stomp," in years.

The return of Broadway is one of the moments tourism officials have been anticipating since the Capitol reopened in September.

More than 2,000 people headed to downtown Wheeling for the show, which is generating business for the entire city of Wheeling.

Wheeling Mayor Andy McKenzie said the money that comes into town with these types of events is tremendous.

"The response I've seen from small businesses is positive and by the Capitol Theatre reopening we've kept jobs here. People continue to keep coming to the downtown area, which is very important," said Mayor McKenzie.

The next show at the Capitol is Wednesday, "A Rock and Roll Party featuring Kofi Burbridge."

There is also a Wheeling Nailer hockey game on Wednesday night, businesses expect the downtown area to be booming.

I often have come to doubt the statistics that are thrown around like this. 2,000 people came downtown to the Capitol and the income to the city was "tremendous" says the Mayor. In what way, I don't understand? Did they eat in one of the many restaurants downtown? No, because there are none? Did they shop downtown? No, there is no place to shop. They may have used the parking lot but I think its wrong to throw around baloney stats to enhance your own position. Its a great thing that the Capitol is open, but in fact the cost will take a long time to offset. The mayor says the show "is generating business for the entire city of Wheeling." Can we not just be glad that the Capitol is open, do we need to have some political baloney heaped upon us. To be sure ethe city put a lot of money into the Capitol for its tradition and for the community but its not a money maker, a panacea. We did the Capitol people flip out when someone asked about how much money, they got overly defensive when a councilman simply asked how much. Thats his job as an elected official. Is it the job of the Mayor to bury us under smoke telling us that this has saved jobs (how many?) and boasted the entire city of Wheeling. There is a Nailer game and this means "the downtown area to be booming". Its positive but just don't feed us a lot of fake information. Its a positive thing but do more then don't just try to mislead us this way. Its insulting and takes away from the actual event. I remember when the tunnel closed one of the elected flunkies told us that its a great thing because people are being directed downtown...but they just drove through there was no reason to stop and shop or eat..it does not exist. When there are new decent restaurants opening downtown we will know that there is business and activity there. Not just bars, thats all thats left downtown, especially at night. The Nailers are good for Nail City but four shows a year will not make the area around the Capitol a theater district. Keep going but stop being so fake.

CONGRATULATIONS FRANK O'BRIEN= A JOB WELL DONE!! YOU WERE A VISIONARY AND THE CITIZENS OF THE AREA APPRECIATE YOUR DEDICATION AND AWAIT THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF WHEELING.

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