The St. Charles Convention Center has something to brag about today: It issued a news release noting its $10,141 operating profit in calendar 2008.  While that tiny amount of black ink would amount to a rounding error on some income statements, its a rarity in the convention center business. Most exhibition halls, including America’s Center in downtown St. Louis, routinely lose money and are subsidized with tax revenue.

The St. Charles folks say they had budgeted for a loss of $374,789 last year. The suburban convention center had been in the red since it opened in 2005, but last year’s revenue of $5.3 million was far ahead of the original projections.

In 2005, the Post-Dispatch reported that America’s Center was running an annual deficit of about $4.2 million. I’m looking for a current figure, and will update this post when I find one.

Update, Feb. 5: Bruce Sommer, executive director of America’s Center, tells me that the building’s operating deficit has been between $4 million and $5 million in recent years, and will be in the same range this year. He also says that comparing small centers with big ones is an apples-and-oranges proposition. A small suburban building competes mostly for events that serve local residents, he argues, while America’s Center must discount its facilities to compete with other large cities for national events. “We treat the big building like it’s the Pepsi-Cola on sale in the supermarket,” he said. “You discount it, but then when people come to town, they pay full price for the hotel rooms, taxi service, restaurant meals and everything else.” That, in turn, generates tax revenue that helps support the convention center.