Lawn on D’s best friend

Good management counts. And the new management at the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority is already showing that private sector skills can be used to deliver more in the public sector — and save a buck or two along the way.

The Lawn on D— a wonderful public space directly across from the Herald’s offices — had

lost as much as $2.3 million in one year. Now only in the public sector could you even imagine taking a great venue attached to the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, in one of the city’s fastest growing neighborhoods, a place well suited to concerts and to pumping an adult beverage or two and lose money.

But last week MCCA Executive Director David Gibbons told the Herald that he expected the facility’s deficit this year to be between $250,000 and $350,000 with a goal of breaking even by 2018.

Essentially Gibbons saved the Lawn on D — since multiyear, multimillion dollar deficits were not sustainable. And the “magic” behind this little “miracle” for the 2.7 acre property?

Gibbons brought its marketing and management in-house. And among his team’s first triumphs was sealing a deal with Citizens Bank for sponsorship rights. It also hosts private and corporate events at its adjoining pavilion (some 87 private events to date this year have generated $606,000 in revenue) without denying public access to the rest of the facility.

Food and beverage sales, which also provide revenue to the MCCA, are up and those revenues nearly doubled.

But the Lawn remains a good neighbor too, hosting 101 public events from May to October (and, full disclosure, Boston Herald Radio broadcast each Friday from there from June to September).

Gibbons, who came to the MCCA less than a year ago after a long career in the hospitality industry, has succeeded in large measure because he wasn’t bound by the if-you-have-it-spend-mindset endemic in the public sector. Now if only he could be cloned!