Downtown business owners had the chance to voice their opinions about plans for Tiger Town during meetings held March 8, 12 and 13.
Tiger Town, an MU tailgating area, will encourage students, fans and visitors to celebrate in downtown Columbia before football games. Plans have progressed since MU first announced its plan to move to the Southeastern Conference in the fall.
All were welcome to attend the meetings, and about 20 people attended each meeting, said Michael McClung, a Tiger Town representative from the Downtown Columbia Improvement District Board. Mostly business owners came ready to vocalize their concerns about Tiger Town. Each meeting lasted approximately an hour.
“Meetings were held so that business owners could express their level of interest in involvement,” McClung said.
He also said the meetings had an instructive, brainstorming atmosphere and attempted to include the business owners in the planning process.
Because the planning stage is still occurring, no definite information was available to give to attendees, Addison’s owner Adam Dushoff said. Instead, leaders of Tiger Town discussed broader outlines of what the future could look like. The meetings never centered around concrete details.
McClung said business owners received an opportunity to voice their concerns about Tiger Town.
“Obviously, public safety and transportation are a concern and are being addressed,” McClung said.
Business owners also addressed the marketing aspect and concrete details as potential concerns, Dushoff said. But the most prominent potential trouble discussed was how Tiger Town would affect business in general.
Many business owners worried after articles were released with incorrect information regarding the future plans for Tiger Town, Dushoff said. This created hype that the leaders of Tiger Town hoped to quell at the meetings by giving out and validating correct information.
Although he did not attend any of the meetings, Richard King, owner of The Blue Note, said he was still concerned the general plan was decided upon but no concrete information had been released.
“The devil was in the details,” he said.
King does not know how Tiger Town will affect his business, but he said he agreed with McClung’s report that public safety and transportation should be at the top of the list of priorities to address.
The future is entirely open for Tiger Town with the planning process only in the creative stage, McClung said.
Leaders of Tiger Town present at the meetings have codified all of the issues voiced by the downtown business owners and will bring them to planning meetings.
No future meeting time is set with downtown vendors, but after more progress is made, changes will occur, Dushoff said. The task force knows it cannot make everyone happy but will try to make changes beneficial to the future of Tiger Town.
The general outlook toward Tiger Town is positive, with most downtown business owners excited to see how their businesses will change, McClung said. Future meetings will take place to address any further concerns as they arise.
