The Auto Writer

Good news coming from the state of Michigan is about as scarce as hen’s teeth. Never mind the friggin’ cold and snow — staples of the Wolverine state winter — most of the other news from the largest rust belt state has been awful this year.

On the sports scene, the University of Michigan football team posted their worst record of the year, finishing 3-9 and missing out on a post season bowl game for the first time in 34 years. Worse off are the NFL Detroit Lions who are making history, but not the kind of memorable moment anyone wants them to make. With one game left in the season, the toothless Lions face the Packers at Lambeau Field and the prospect of finishing their season 0-16.

Not to add salt on the wounds of the beleaguered state, but the auto industry remains a mess despite the bail out of General Motors and Chrysler. Few analysts expect Chrysler to survive in its current state and GM most likely isn’t done needing money from taxpayers to prop up their business. Ford is in the best shape of all three, but mortgaged to the hilt.

The glimmer of good news isn’t yet a done deal, but if the governor of Michigan — Jennifer Granholm — makes good with her signature then the state legislature’s passage of a bill to expand Detroit’s Cobo Hall shows that hope is on its way.

Right now the hall’s biggest annual event is the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) an event held in Detroit every year since 1989. Sure, Detroit auto shows hearken back to the early part of the last century, but the coveted NAIAS designation is a more recent and coveted designation.

By annually hosting the NAIAS the city of Detroit, surrounding counties, indeed the state of Michigan (and likely the province of Ontario) benefit financially from this event. Reportedly, $500 million pours into the area annually thanks to the NAIAS, an amount that would shrink tremendously if the NAIAS pulled out.

Not that the NAIAS has publicly threatened to leave Detroit, but with the Cobo Hall being too small to house all of the automakers, space is at a premium. This January there will be some free room because several automakers, including Nissan, have scaled back or canceled their plans to put their cars on display. That move will allow two Chinese automakers to gain some center hall floor space, leaving the lobby area open.

Not everyone thinks that a Cobo Hall expansion is a wise move including the editorial corps of the Detroit Free Press, one of the two dailies serving the Motor City.  In an opinion piece published this past Sunday, the “Freep” as it is known called on the Cobo Center to be renovated, but stopped short of agreeing to an expansion, at least right now.

The concern of the newspaper is the NAIAS itself, by far the biggest hosted venue at the Cobo Hall. Indeed, work on the NAIAS begins in September rendering the hall useless for other exhibitions for about five months of the year. If the NAIAS should leave Detroit or if General Motors scaled back (dropping Pontiac, Hummer and Saturn for example) the extra room might not be needed.

Clearly, the Cobo Hall needs to be renovated but a cash strapped state may not be able to afford the expansion part (costing $100 million) of the work or, if they go ahead with the complete project, end up with a hall that isn’t being fully used.

Michigan’s one state recession has been going on for seven years now and with the rest of the country also in recession, the risk factor has increased.

But, for a city that hasn’t seen much hope in a long time, a renewed Cobo Hall could be the shot in the arm that the region needs with so little good news to grab a hold of.