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See generally the Des Moines Register's "Des Moines Development" Web site, at http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/NEWS12/50110001, and more particularly its "Iowa Events Center" Web site, with links to other stories, photos and videos, at http://www.dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=NEWS&theme=Iowa_Events_Center&template=theme

[Note: This material is copyright by the Des Moines Register, and is reproduced here as a matter of "fair use" for non-commercial, educational purposes only. Any other use may require the prior approval of the Des Moines Register.]

As the Wells Fargo Arena hosts its first event this week, it joins ranks with a slew of similar venues in the Midwest. The $99 million facility was sold to Polk County residents as a way to draw big-name acts and events to Des Moines.

The new Wells Fargo Arena in downtown Des Moines is either the linchpin of an economic revival, a swank coliseum that many Iowans will rarely use or a publicly financed money pit that will cost taxpayers millions of dollars for years to come.

Industry observers say the $99 million venue could become any of the three.

"There is a honeymoon period, and it's particularly strong the first year. People will come just for the newness factor," said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar, a concert trade publication. "After that, there are no absolutes. It really depends on how nice a building it is and how well they run it.

"That takes some time."

The arena, the final piece of the Polk County-owned, $217 million Iowa Events Center, was built with state grants and county taxpayer money and will be paid off chiefly with gambling profits from Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino in Altoona.

But the idea had to survive early public skepticism and a pair of legal battles that inflated the cost of the Events Center project, which also includes a convention hall, a museum to honor Iowans' achievements, and renovations to the venerable Veterans Memorial Auditorium.

The endeavor represents the most expensive public project in state history.

Hy-Vee Hall and the Iowa Hall of Pride opened earlier this year. The old auditorium's much-needed face-lift is complete. But entertainment experts say that to keep the arena active and make the investment worthwhile, promoters will need to create enough buzz to pique the interest of busy people like Nicole Swafford, 21, a Des Moines mother who says it'll take an extraordinary event for her to spring for a ticket to the new venue.

"I don't have time or money for concerts or that kind of thing," she said on her way to a recent shift at the downtown Burger King.

Wells Fargo Arena, perched just north of downtown with a view of the Des Moines River, is an impressive building, Swafford said. But "if it never opened, I can't say it would matter to me."

A public open house is scheduled for Tuesday. The long-awaited arena's first event is skateboard legend Tony Hawk's "Boom Boom Huck Jam," a showcase for 'boarders, BMXers and motocross riders that promises to "leave fans on the edge of their seats" with a $1 million ramp system that includes a Loop of Death and a 30-foot drop.

Promoters have also lined up a sold-out October date with former Beatle Paul McCartney that has commanded ticket prices upwards of $176. But many say the success of the arena lies in how Iowans support professional hockey.

The minor league Iowa Stars are the venue's flagship tenant and will play the first of 40 regular-season home games in October. So far, about 2,000 season tickets have been sold for a rink that will seat more than 15,000.

Andy Long, the facility's general manager, said all but a handful of the 36 luxury suites arranged in a horseshoe pattern around the arena's perimeter are leased.

Don't expect to see Edgar Kintzer at the ticket counter.

"It will take an awful lot of big-time shows" to offset the public investment in the arena, said Kintzer, 77, of Des Moines. "It's not realistic."

Early signs are mixed. McCartney sold out quickly. Tickets went on sale in May for Green Day, a punk-rock band that has filled arenas across the country. The Des Moines show is not a sell-out. Other acts, such as rocker Tom Petty, are not expected to sell out, either. Fifty events have so far been scheduled for the arena's inaugural year.

"Things are humming," said Long, who estimates the arena will generate more than $1.1 million in profit in its first full year. "All we're hearing is a lot of excitement."

But the Events Center's three other components are expected to operate in the red, which means taxpayers will cover a $977,280 shortfall in the budget year that started this month.

Unlike the other buildings, the county is not responsible for losses on the arena, yet it also must share much of the profit with Long's employer, a Philadelphia management firm called Global Spectrum. The company will keep the first $500,000 of any profit, and the county will get 80 percent of the next $1 million.

Skeptics worry the arena won't generate enough business to offset the complex's other losses, and thus leave taxpayers with a hefty annual subsidy and eventual higher taxes.

Long and the county leaders who championed the arena point to successes elsewhere in the region, such as Omaha's taxpayer-backed Qwest Center, a $290 million, 18,000-seat arena and convention center that opened in 2003 and is projected to draw up to 1 million people to that city's downtown this year.

The city of Omaha finished 2004 with more than $700 million in debt, due largely to investments in its new arena and other downtown projects. City leaders have said they might have to raise taxes or cut services next year.

But boosters say it is difficult to measure the ripple effect of new arenas, which have helped cities such as Omaha reinvigorate their downtowns and have given residents a lively, central place to gather. That can attract new employers and beef up the tax base in central cities that have lost residents to the suburbs. Union Pacific Railroad and the Gallup Organization, for example, have opened new headquarters in downtown Omaha since plans for the Qwest Center first materialized.

Wells Fargo Arena will hold up to 17,000 people for concerts, high school sports tournaments and events such as monster-truck shows.

Bongiovanni warns, however, that a string of weak ticket sales for high-profile acts will make it difficult for promoters in years to come.

"Basically, everyone plays New York, L.A. and probably Chicago," he said. "Beyond that, there are all sorts of cities the size of Des Moines, so there's a lot of competition."

Long and company have banked on hockey. Other cities with downtowns similar to Des Moines' have done the same, most notably, St. Paul, Minn.

Minnesota's capital city's $175 million Xcel Energy Center, a publicly financed, 18,000-seat arena that opened in 2000, helped bring vitality to a downtown that in the 1980s and '90s was lifeless after 5 p.m.

The Xcel arena was built for the National Hockey League's Minnesota Wild. St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly heralds a chamber of commerce study that showed consistent sellouts for hockey and concerts - and $100 million for the St. Paul economy in 2003 alone.

But that's only part of the story. A labor dispute between players and team owners canceled the 2004-05 NHL season, and St. Paul lost millions of dollars as it went without the 800,000 hockey fans who had poured into downtown a year earlier. Critics said the experience highlighted problems with tying a downtown economy to sports.

That worries some in Des Moines, who also note that the Iowa Stars are not a major league team and are likely to draw only a few thousand fans on a given night. Count hockey fan Anthony Shellenberger of Des Moines, whose 9-year-old son is active in the sport, among them.

"A lot of parents I know through hockey have bought season tickets for the Stars, and so I know there's a lot of excitement in that crowd," Shellenberger said. "And the fact that there is a new arena, I think that will draw a lot of people for a game or two.

"But I don't know if they'll become actual hockey fans and start going to games on a regular basis. And you'll have to have more than the current base of real hockey fans to really have good crowds" over time.

County supervisors counted on a first-year deficit because of start-up costs and expenses related to revamping the auditorium, said the board's chairman, Tom Hockensmith.

He said the size of the Iowa Events Center project means challenges every step of the way, not the least of which were lawsuits that delayed work for several months and drove its cost up. Original estimates came in well under $200 million.

Before construction started, the now-late Frank Bowers of Des Moines sued the county after the supervisors decided they would not put the financing plan to a public vote. Later, nonunion contractors challenged a county decision that required contractors to pay workers union wages; the issue was eventually settled in the county's favor, but only after a legal battle that reached the Iowa Supreme Court in 2002.

Ultimately, Hockensmith said, support for the arena and its potential benefits for downtown overshadowed detractors' skepticism. He and other county leaders are confident the arena - Wells Fargo & Co. will pay $11.5 million for the naming rights - will draw healthy crowds, steadily increase revenue, and help draw attention to the complex.

"I don't have a crystal ball," Hockensmith said. "But I think we've put ourselves in the best possible position we can be in to be successful."