The management for the Vicksburg Convention Center and City Auditorium is locked in place for five years. A contract approved Tuesday by the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen kept VenuWorks in place as facility manager and also made strides for proposed future expansion.

The Ames, Iowa-based company has been in charge of the two facilities since 2001. The new contract calls for a nearly $3,000 decrease in fees paid by the city and also looks forward to improved aesthetics at the auditorium and expansion of the convention center.

Part of the contract calls for VenuWorks to produce a feasibility study on future expansion, which should contain plans for a hotel connected to the facility. As it is now, the closest hotel is at Grand Station Casino, three blocks from the convention center. The thought is the expansion would attract larger conventions, which would provide more money for city and county coffers thanks to hotel stays and restaurant visits. The more income brought in, the better.

We must disagree, however, with a few of the provisions, mostly dealing with the mandating of hiring of minority businesses and programs geared specifically toward Black History Month. The free market should decide those, not mandated in a contract. In June 2008, blues legend B.B. King performed at the Vicksburg Convention Center. Mr. King happens to be a black man. Should his performance have had to be mandated through contract? Or is the fact that despite the color of his skin, he is an extremely talented musician and showman who will attract a most diverse crowd? His show did attract a diverse crowd, but only 1,300 tickets were sold — about 800 fewer than capacity — for a legendary performer.

Which brings us to another conundrum: If B.B. King could not sell out the currently configured center, who could? And should we be talking expansion already if sell-outs of current events are hard to come by? It’s a chicken-and-egg scenario. Expand first and hope, or fill the current facility and face limits.

All-in-all, this contract provides stability for Vicksburg’s two centers. We hope stability and vision result in dollars and cents.