Recreation community drops the ball -- again

Don't blame the voters for the failures of the indoor turf facility and the city gym. They needed to be convinced to support these amenities and, unfortunately, the projects' supporters didn't get the job done. 

"A bigger blame goes to the folks that are so short-sighted and selfish who voted against prop 6 and 7 but are willing to support other propositions like the Botanic Gardens." -- Facebook post from Wally Erickson, head of the Downtown Development Authority board and local soccer booster

Supporters of the two sixth-penny propositions that failed this week -- one would have put up a $6.8 million indoor turf facility, the other a gym ($7.1 million) that could have more adequately handled city programs -- are angrily blaming the voters of Laramie County for their defeat. One example is DDA director Wally Erickson, quoted above.

An indoor turf facility such as this failed in Tuesday's local election.

But that is too easy. Those same voters approved seven other propositions, including one for the Greenway expansion and another for an eastside park, in all totaling some $91 million. It's pretty hard to call them cheap or short-sighted when they step up like that.

No, once again -- as happened twice previously with efforts to build a recreation center here -- the supporters of these projects quite simply didn't get the job done. Did you see any signs around the community in support of these two projects? How about ads in the newspaper or on TV or radio? How about on social media? Heck, I even came across a digital ad for Proposition 4, the planned multi-purpose events center at the Archer Complex, on the weather app on my cellphone.

There was none of this from the boosters of these recreation projects, and they paid the price for their lackadaisical approach. All they had to do was turn about 300 votes from "nay" to "aye to pass the turf facility and less than 125 votes to get the gymnasium approved. If you don't think the big marketing pushes to pass the Christensen Road overpass approved (with 60.4 percent of the ballot) and get the multipurpose facility OK'd (with just 50.6 percent) worked, you are dead wrong. Get your projects at the forefront of the voters' minds, and you will get them approved.

That is particularly the case with recreation projects here. It appears only the Greenway is bulletproof in that regard; anything else is fighting an uphill battle from the get-go. Consider that there was similar momentum against the multipurpose building. After all, it failed just five years ago. But marketing and promotion appear to have made the difference this go-round. It passed by 173 votes. No doubt, marketing and advertising -- so absent in the recreation projects -- made the difference.

The thing is, the arguments for both the turf facility and the new gym were easy: These projects would have helped to make Cheyenne more attractive to young singles and young families while adding boosts to the local economy through tournaments and similar events. These certainly were as important tools for economic development as will be the multipurpose facility, which, despite the claims of its supporters, has little chance of being self-supporting; those things never are. But that case for these recreation projects never was made to the public, and both failed.

Erickson is right about one thing in his Facebook post https://www.facebook.com/wally.erickson.7. He writes: "I believe it is very much a reality that we will continue to lose our kids, as they grow into adults, to places that are committed to the younger generation. And companies that are considering relocating to Cheyenne will continue to go elsewhere."

The problem is, KNOWING the truth is not enough. You have to FIGHT for it and SELL it. Why the recreation community continues to fail to see that may be the biggest mystery of this recent election. But beating up the voters won't get it done. They are not the real problem. Rather the real issue, unfortunately, stares back at the supporters of these projects every time they look in the bathroom mirror.

D. Reed Eckhardt is the former executive editor of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.