Rhode Island Comic Con at the Convention Center is frozen in time.
And, at Veterans Memorial Auditorium, Sesame Street Live! isn t.
So how are these three venues, all overseen by the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority, paying the bills while the world waits for life to return to normal?
The authority is relying on cost reductions including layoffs of about 70% of the people who normally work such events plus some unusual shows to keep its books close to being in the black. It s sort of going business as usual, but we don t have any business, Jeffrey Hirsh, treasurer of the Convention Center Authority board, told The Providence Journal. We re paying our bills with the money the state pays us to rent the facility.