The SF Chronicle covers the mess that is Sony's Metreon in San Francisco.
"It was supposed to be a place where you couldn't tell where the entertainment ended and the retail began," Bryant said. "I truly believed in it 100 percent."
That is, until Metreon opened for business.
"What got created," Bryant said with undisguised bitterness, "was a shopping mall with gated attractions that you had to pay to get into. It wasn't very fun, and the public reacted to that."
On one level, the story of Metreon's rise and fall is the story of what happens when visionary ideas collide with the realities of the business world.
On a more basic level, it's the story of what happens when corporate powers-that-be decide, as they so often do, to place short-term gain ahead of long-term investments.
"Sony started cutting our budget almost as soon as we opened," Bryant said. "They decided within six months of opening that they didn't want to be in the land development business after all."
Metreon's shattered dreams [sfgate.com]
The real question to me is "how much money to Sony lose on the Metreon?" "Metreon" is not mentioned in the Sony annual report I looked at; can anyone else find something?
That sounds on its face like a questionable concept, anyway. What does "entertainment ends" and "retail begins" mean anyway? People go shopping to buy things - retail behaviorial patterns are generally pretty well modeled. And a nicer place to shop is great - but I'm guessing that the math on expensive, free entertainment just isn't that good...
Museums have exhibit-specific gift shops, I guess - but they don't in any way fund the museum.
cdg