By William C. Singleton III
Journal contributor
There will not be any Christmas lights at the Hoover Met this year–at least not a display by OneEightySix Lightworks LLC.
Art Roper, owner of the OneEightySix Lightworks, said he was not able to come up with enough sponsors for the “Lights at the Met” program this year. But he’s working on corporate sponsorship for next year.
“We started a little later than what we had wanted,” Roper said. “We had some corporate sponsors who voiced that they wanted to be a part of this program this year. But we had others who had spent their sponsorship funds for this year. Right now, we’re approaching those sponsors for next year.”
In August, the Hoover City Council authorized the mayor to enter into a contract with OneEightySix Lightworks to sponsor “Lights at the Met” this Christmas holiday season from Nov. 29-Jan. 5, 2014. The event was scheduled for Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and would have cost between $5-8 for adults and $3-5 for children under 13.
The display would have been held in the RV parking area at the Met and would have been similar to Zoolight Safari at the Birmingham Zoo.
OneEightySix had billed the display as a five-acre light show with tens of thousands of lights.
City officials were looking forward to the event because it would provide another attraction for the Met, which lost a major client when the Birmingham Barons moved in September 2012 to a new stadium in downtown Birmingham.
However, city officials say they hope to continue a relationship with OneEightySix, even if it’s a year down the road.
