Letter to the Editor: Theater donations, anyone?
Editor's note: We all have our opinions about the stalled Krikorian theater project in Menifee Town Center. Here's a different take ...
http://www.menifee247.com/2023/02/letter-to-the-editor-theater-donations-anyone.html
Editor:
My name is Johnny Bryson, and I have been a resident of Menifee since March 2017. Both my wife and I retired from the U.S. Army after 20 years of service. We drove from San Antonio, Texas, searching for our retirement home. After exploring different areas, we decided to make Menifee our home. There are many reasons we settled on Menifee, but one of the reasons was the Town Center.
As you know, every community member has anticipated the theater being opened since being announced. In the military, my leadership did not like complaining. They only wanted solutions, and I believe I have one.
I pulled the census data from 2022, and it states we have 106,401 residents with a median income of $81,741. As a community, we can take matters into our own hands. We can ask residents and business owners to help raise capital to finish the Krikorian Theater project. As a community, we are tired of being the string and hoping someone else will fix our problem.
I have only spoken to a few community members and even someone outside the community that would be willing to donate to get some movement on the project. We could establish different levels of donations. We could have five levels of contributions: Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze, each receiving something in return. For example, Diamond Level donations of $1,000 or more would receive 12 movie passes and a donation stone with the family’s name in front of the theater; we could have a Menifee Walk of Fame.
As a resident of six years, I would be more than happy to donate money to eliminate the eyesore we see every day. As a community, we would see our property value increase, and the theater would help generate income for the surrounding businesses. If there’s a way, we could survey the community members and have a specific dollar amount, and I think it would be worth a shot. As I stated earlier, I would be the first to donate to make our community even better than it already is.
Johnny S. Bryson
I'm retired from the commercial theatre business. Having owned and operated 11 theatres I can tell you it's nothing to spend 20 to 40 million dollars before a new build is completed. If everybody in Menifee donated $1,000 it wouldn't be enough to finish the building much less pay for the equipment required for a theatre as large as the one you're talking about. Sorry to pour water on your idea but this is not a project that donations could pay for.
ReplyDeleteTheaters are becoming a thing of the past. With the way the economy is it makes for sense to stream movies at home and save the money. I am sure they can come up with something else to generate income for surrounding businesses. Lets be original and put something there that is not also at every surrounding city.
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