It’s been nearly three years since the Avanti’s Dome in Pekin deflated after sustaining wind damage in a storm. While the Event Center business is still open, the indoor recreation facility still hasn’t been rebuilt.
Despite facing challenges since the dome’s collapse, operators of the venue are optimistic about the future.
Brian Wonders is nearly four years into his second stint as general manager of the Avanti’s Event Center. In the years since what they called “the bubble” came down, they’ve faced misconceptions about the status of the business, he said.
“The dome was a huge part, and it’s kind of like the ‘open sign’ being down when you’re going someplace somewhere, and some of the sign is not there,” said Wonders. “The thing we fight probably the most with is people thinking we’re closed.
“No matter how many times we’ve been on the news or in the paper — we’ll put out social media ads that we have a Murder Mystery Dinner coming up, or a daddy-daughter dance, and there’ll be comments: ‘Where’s it being held? The dome is not rebuilt,’ [and] people not realizing that we have a 3,000-square-foot banquet room.”
Wonders stresses the 33-acre complex has not been dormant since the dome collapsed. The outdoor softball diamonds regularly host tournaments, while the event center has a year-round schedule of various activities.
“We have the [softball] tournaments. We do murder-mystery dinners every month; we have one coming up on April 21,” he said. “We have different events, like we’ve got a German Spring Fest coming up on April 14. We do about four sports card collectible shows a year, the next one's coming up April 20. And then we have wedding receptions, banquets, daddy-daughter dances, different vendor shows.”
Originally built in 2002 as the Dragon’s Dome, the facility was purchased by Avanti’s Ristorante founder and CEO Albert Zeller in 2010 and rebranded with the Avanti’s name. Zeller still owns the venue, but Wonders said the property is for sale and has been on the market for a while.
“Albert wants to be retired,” said Wonders. “He’s willing to stay involved as a partner and stuff like that, but it’s at the point for someone else to kind of take it over. But the business is staying open.”
Wonders said no change in ownership is imminent, but they’re hopeful something will develop in the near future.
“We’ve talked to potential investors, people interested in buying in,” he said. “But a lot of it is whether they can get the financing, or they want to see the dome up first, [and] trying to work out stuff with the city.”
Pekin City Manager John Dossey said they’ve also had several conversations with Zeller, other businesses and some potential investor groups about possible redevelopment opportunities at the location.
“We’ve had some interest generated in that as well,” said Dossey. “We’re hoping to continue to move forward and progress to bring that ‘win’ to the community [and] have some type of a civic center-type place that people can come to, to continue to grow that area out there.”
Dossey said the city isn’t capable of issuing a straight loan to the business, but might be able to consider alternatives.
“We’re looking at how it’s going to help the community, what’s our return on investment and how quick we’re going to recoup our money,” he said. “The city would be more than happy to help where we can. It is in a TIF area, so there might be some TIF dollars available to assist, once we see what the plan is and what the potential for return on investment is.”
Wonders recalled the overnight storm that caused the dome to deflate in June 2021.
“It was Father's Day weekend; we actually had our first daddy-daughter dance the night before. The storm came through, it was that 100-mph sheer wind wall storm that hit the Midwest. I'm sure you saw videos and pictures of corn flattened like carpet across Iowa and parts of Illinois,” said Wonders, adding most of Pekin lost power around 12:45 a.m.
He said the wind caused a separation in the dome near the emergency doors. The backup power supply kept the dome up for a while, but by the next morning the dying batteries couldn’t offset the pace of the air leaks.
“We didn't get power back until 11 in the morning, and there was about nothing we could do at that point,” he said.
Since then, they’ve encountered several challenges in trying to get the dome rebuilt, in part because the collapse happened as the pandemic continued to influence the economy.
“A lot of it was, everyone dealing with insurance: when can we remove stuff, when we can do that? There was the age of the dome; it was at the point where we couldn’t just go and repair that [damaged] part, because the only parts that would be covered under warranty would be the parts that were repaired — and who knows what the stress of coming down on something that was approaching 20 years old would have done.
“So [we] would have to replace the entire thing, and then a lot of it is just, as everyone knows, costs skyrocketed post-COVID.”
Without the capability to hold the indoor sports events the venue once did, Wonders said the venue can’t carry as large a staff as it did in the past.
“Before, we had the general manager, and then in the past there has been a sports director, concessions and kitchen manager, someone to do accounts payable and receivable, and then maybe an assistant events manager,” he said. “There would be anywhere from three to five people for that stuff, not counting your groundskeepers, your concession workers or banquet servers. Now for all those, it's me.”
Wonders said hotel managers and other nearby business owners have told him they’ve taken an economic hit from the dome’s deflation, too.
“All the restaurants around here, they feel it,” he said. “It’s at least a 10% hit on their sales on the corresponding weekends [with softball tournaments]. They always want to know, especially our indoor tournaments because with our indoor tournaments we’d average — especially in January, February, and March — 30 teams a weekend, and over 20 of those will be [coming from] an hour and a half away or farther.
“So all the restaurants, they wanted to know what size tournament was coming in so they’d have enough staff. So, the economic impact on that isn’t just the people spending the money here at our concessions, or on the registration fees, or the hotels. It’s people going in and eating at Buffalo Wild Wings or Bob Evans and then tipping more to those waitresses. They have to have more people working, and that money stays in the area.”
A perfect scenario, Wonders said, would see a new dome on the site before the end of this year.
“If I had my way, ideally a new bubble would be open by the end of October so we could really hit the indoor season,” he said, adding that would require an investor or buyer coming forward so an order could be placed by June.
