Amphitheater in Roanoke?

In seeing a post on the Roanoke Valley Republican Blog and after also having this conversation with a friend who happens to be a Democrat over my vacation to Myrtle Beach this past weekend I thought I would bring up this debate on the blog.

1. I believe an amphitheater in Roanoke would bring more entertainment and business options to the people of the Roanoke Valley. It would also allow us to have more natioanlly known acts playing regularly in Roanoke like the old days when the Roanoke Civic Center was a fairly large venue and people like Elvis and the Grateful Dead would play there every year.
   
2. The amphitheater does not need to be funded by the government of Roanoke City, Roanoke County, Salem, or Botetourt. This needs to be a venture by the people and for the people. This will create jobs and it goes back again to what I believe that Barack Obama and a lot of the Democrats have wrong. The government CANNOT create jobs. Jobs can only be created by citizens and businesses. By having private enterprise head up this venture it will allow people to reap the benifits of the amphitheater rather than the government.
   
3. The amphitheater does not need to be in Elmwood Park. An alternate location needs to be found. Elmwood Park is a great location for an amphitheater but by having it there it would go against my point in #2 because to have it in a park the government would have to be largley involved in the project and possibly be in control of the whole thing. Additionally by having an amphitheater in Elmwood Park events that use the whole park, such as the Strawberry Festival, Party in the Park, and Local Colors as well as many others, would now have to seek alternate locations for their events as most of the space they use now would be taken up by the amphitheater.
4. It will allow for more jobs that I believe we desprately need right now and I also think it would bring a group of people that Roanoke is signifigantly lacking right now: young, single professionals. We have a small faction of these people that are heavily involved in Roanoke in things like MicroFestivus and the Square Society but we don't have near as many young, single people as other cities our size do. Roanoke has a lot of families and retired people. I am not saying there is anything wrong with having those people live here at all. They are an asset to our community but I think if we brodened our base a little bit it would allow Roanoke to be a really thriving, prosperous, and successful city. And in my opinion the first thing that would allow us to expand like this would be an amphitheater.