An interesting story — the city evicting the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame — developed while I was on vacation. Saving the Hall has a simple solution: ticket surcharges.
It’s not an original idea. In fact, a surcharge bill was introduced in the House in 2007.
That bill, however, would have surcharged one men’s and one women’s varsity event at universities ($2 surcharge), junior colleges ($1) and high schools (50 cents). Understandably, that didn’t pass. Too convoluted.
My solution is much more simple. Add 50 cents to every ticket sold in football and basketball at Kansas and Kansas State. At Wichita State, baseball would replace football.
By my calculations — which are very rough but also quite conservative — there are more than 1 million tickets sold per year to those events. The surcharge would raise $500,000 for the hall, which has an annual budget between $450,000 and $600,000. Even a surcharge of 25 cents would raise about half of the hall’s annual budget. If the hall can’t make up the difference through fund-raising, then close it.
So what’s wrong with this plan? Anyone care to argue?
Hospitals are aiming toward a resort-like feel when it comes to attracting maternity patients, a Florida paper reported. A couple of Orlando area hospitals have invested millions of dollars into their maternity suites, going for ultra-contemporary, upscale decor to attract expectant moms. The story says:
There’s granite in the bathroom, a flat-screen television on the wall and a masseuse is available to sooth your aching muscles.
Welcome to a modern-day maternity ward, where hospitals see labor and delivery as big business and are competing to make their rooms feel less like an infirmary and more like a resort.
Our maternity wards in Wichita are nothing to sneeze at. Have you seen the Wesley Medical Center birthing suites? But where one gives birth here often depends on which hospital her insurance dictates.
But why invest this kind of money when maternity patients are typically loss leaders? The story suggests it’s because women usually make the health care decisions and if they have a good birth experience, they’ll likely come back. Does that matter here? I think so. Employers listen to their employees.