Mobile’s largest Carnival societies may be dancing somewhere else by 2016. Mayor Sandy Stimpson has told the city’s Mardi Gras organizations they will need to find another ball venue as questions mount over the future of the 50-year-old Mobile Civic Center.
No wrecking ball is scheduled, but all options are on the table for a facility widely acknowledged to be in poor shape. Stimpson told local media that bringing the building into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act alone could cost up to $15 million, before any modernization begins. The Civic Center also loses money every year — estimates reported locally run from roughly $700,000 to $800,000 annually.
Where the Balls Would Go
Balls are only part of Mobile’s Carnival economy, and not every society calls the Civic Center home. Many organizations have already shifted to Fort Whiting, the Convention Center and even the Cruise Terminal. But the dozen or so biggest societies still using the Civic Center — including the Crewe of Columbus, Conde Cavaliers and Mystics of Time — have spent decades growing to fill its space, and scaling back would be difficult and potentially costly.
Outside Carnival season, the arena remains a reliable stop for World Wrestling Entertainment, but few other events regularly fill it. That raises the question now facing City Hall: how much longer can the city afford to maintain a money-losing facility whose anchor tenants are private Carnival clubs, even accounting for the millions Mardi Gras brings to Mobile each year?
For now, the societies that fill the Grand Linoleum Palace each season are waiting to learn where — or whether — their balls fit into the building’s future.