PENTICTON – Penticton sticks with Global Spectrum who won the bidding war to run the South Okanagan Event Centre complex.

Penticton and the company signed a 5.5 year management contract. Global Spectrum will run the centre's operations, marketing, food and beverage services and ticketing. The announcement came after a special council meeting held early Monday morning.

There were five bids and each proposal was reviewed by a selection committee of council members, staff and community members. Global Spectrum scored the highest.

The new contract will consolidate four agreements into two – for facility management and ticketing. The streamlined agreements will reduce the city's contribution to the facility building on the $1 million operational savings achieved since 2009.

An impact study found more than $33.9 million in economic activity is generated as a result of events held at the SOEC complex. The economic spinoffs of this complex support an estimated 360 jobs in the region.

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