IS IT TRUE? January 27, 2012
IS IT TRUE that there was a public forum to discuss the future plans for Roberts Stadium yesterday the drew roughly 40 attendees?…that a number of ideas were put on the table but that much more analysis and some more ideas along with some investment dollars will be needed to save Roberts from the wrecking ball that the former Mayor envisioned was in its future?…that one of the criteria for the ideas is that they can’t compete with the Ford Center?…that is a tough nut to crack since both facilities are perfectly capable of holding concerts with headliners drawing over 5,000+ people at $70 per ticket being appropriate for the Ford Center but up an coming bands at $10 a ticket with an expected draw of 1,000 or more being perfectly viable for Roberts buy infeasible for the Ford Center?…that back in the day when Evansville drew many bands to town the Coliseum and Roberts were both frequently booked and the fact that Roberts was not chicken of the Coliseum allowed the people of greater Evansville the opportunity to see bands like KISS, Foghat, Thin Lizzy, REO Speedwagon, Blue Oyster Cult and a host of others at the Coliseum who returned to Roberts a few years later when they developed a large following?…that this requirement that the Ford Center should have no competition is a cowardly myth that seems to have been designed for the political aggrandizement of the former Mayor?…that if the Ford Center is afraid of Roberts that makes about as much sense as a Rottweiler being afraid of a poodle?
IS IT TRUE that cash is pouring in to the Indiana Smokefree Communities coffers faster than it poured into Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008?…that the 70% plus of Hoosiers who openly support a statewide smoking ban are treating Evansville’s pending ordinance as though it is the first battle of the civil war and are pouring cash in here at Mayoral campaign rates?…that the marketing campaigns for the 9 votes of the Evansville City Council are heating up and that this will be quite interesting to watch?
IS IT TRUE that Kitchens has announced that it will be closing its Eastland Mall Store?…that this comes on the heels of the recent announcement that Abercrombie Kids will be vacating the Eastland Store at the end of January?…that this is a strange set of events for a town that was recently pronounced by some economic development entities to have nearly wiped out all of the job losses of the recession when nearly no place else in the country has done so?…that it may be a good lesson for such entities to learn that the job creation calculator has a subtract button on it and that when 2 jobs are started and 3 are lost that the net is a loss of 1?…that the other piece of missing information is that the real metric that needs to be monitored is not the number of jobs but the amount of payroll?…that replacing a lost $20 per hour job with an $8 an hour job should not really qualify as creating a job but that seems to be the way that job counting is done?
IS IT TRUE that the State of Kentucky is on the verge of introducing legislation that would make casino gambling legal in certain locations in the state?…that the future of gambling at Ellis Park is the only real game changer in the projections for Aztar’s future with respect to how legislative action will have any effect?…that it is the Kentucky legislature that is pondering the legislation of interest for Indiana casinos and not the Indiana legislature?…that if Ellis Park were to ever become a land based casino with or without smoking that the business model of Aztar will be disrupted in ways that no one can predict with any existing study?
Bachrach Men’s store and Motherhood Maturity are also leaving Eastland Mall.
In your list of bands you forgot to mention Grand Funk Railroad and Black Oak Arkansas, to name a couple.
Thanks for adding those bands both of which I saw in both places. The list of recording artists that came to Evansville to play for $5 at the Coliseum and then returned to sell out Roberts at $12 a year or two later is quite long. I made a list of 40 once. In order to be a test market for musical acts a city has to have that low price low attendance venue. Evansville has not had such a place since they stopped having concerts at the Coliseum.
“IS IT TRUE that there was a public forum to discuss the future plans for Roberts Stadium yesterday the drew roughly 40 attendees?”
Yes it’s true, and it’s also true that one of the administrations’ most well known and fervent supporters offered this telling insight regarding Jordan Baer, one of the 15-person advisory committee picked by Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke:
“he’s the token ‘save roberts stadium’ boy. kind of funny actually. he went out of his way to support rick davis, but is now doing cartwheels for winnecke. it’s still going to be demolished, and he doesn’t even realize he’s playing a part of the demolition. hilarious.”
Let’s hope the Roberts Stadium issue is not suffering another show-trial, (Roberts Stadium Advisory Board) in which the verdict is pre-determined. …
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IS IT TRUE that cash is pouring in to the Indiana Smokefree Communities coffers faster than it poured into Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008?
I don’t know it it’s true, but, I know that a number of City Council members may find themselves wearing slings from the “arm-twistings” and gas masks to filter the “smoke” being blown by pro-Casino interests. Let’s hope the health and welfare of the Good Citizens of Evansville won’t be sold-out to the almighty gaming dollar. …
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“IS IT TRUE that Kitchens has announced that it will be closing its Eastland Mall Store?…that this comes on the heels of the recent announcement that Abercrombie Kids will be vacating the Eastland Store at the end of January?”
It may be true, but there is one thing for sure: the craft of the statistician is a close cousin to the art of political rhetoric, where perversion of the truth is deemed a virtue. …
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IS IT TRUE that the State of Kentucky is on the verge of introducing legislation that would make casino gambling legal in certain locations in the state?
It seems to be true, and the consequences of gamblings’ “New Kid in Town” Ellis Park, to Casino Aztar could be devastating. Only time will reveal whether the decision to trust “The Snake” Casino Aztar, with so much of Evansvilles’ future, was wise or just another foolish political fiasco perpetrated by politicians who feel most comfortable, … among snakes. …
Good Day! …
Eastland management was trying to force Kitchens to move into a smaller space in the mall to open their current location up to a new tenant. Kitchens decided they’d rather close than move to the smaller space. I hope they find a new location and re-open.
Not sure I saw any “arm twisting” the other night at city council by casino…. what I saw was mostly rhetoric from anti-smoking group with silly cartoons and stage props. The casino folks put forth actual results that show our jobs will be significantly impacted because customers will go elsewhere…. that’s what they’ve done in the only two places comparable to us! Why do some seem to think the casino is only evil when so many of us work there and love our jobs and help participate with so many good improvements and efforts that happen in the city, regardless of how much tax revenue they pay? We only want to be on the same playing field as other Indiana casinos… not looking for any favors! Just let us do our jobs and have fun with customers!!
Understood:
However, organized gambling preys on many who cannot afford to lose, but do. Cigarette smoking is a compulsion, just like gambling and is decidedly detrimental. I have no doubt that many good people count on the Casino for employment. I have enjoyed many nights of musical entertainment at Casino Aztar, dancing till the wee hours and have even been on the stage myself, but the essence of the Casino; gambling, smoking and drinking can never pass as wholesome.
It will come as no surprise to this reader when Aztar pulls up anchor and leaves the City of Evansville and her Good Citizenry, (you included) high, dry and in deep financial trouble.
Best of luck to you. …
You can come down and enjoy the entertainment and have a good time, but the casino is bad…. The Casino provides entertainment. Gambling is a game of chance, people bet a small amount in the chance of winning a big amount. The last time I checked, everyone must be 21 to go on the casino and we are should be responsible adults.
As for pulling up anchor… Aztar has invested over 240 million in the facility, I dont see them just pulling up anchor. How will Aztar leave the city in deep financial trouble? If the city includes the casino they should prepare for financial trouble.
Someone is promoting the idea of stadium football for Roberts. When we had stadium football at Roberts, I attended and thoroughly enjoyed almost every game. Unfortunately, Roberts was at only about 25 – 30% capacity for each game, as I remember it. On top of that, the team owners claimed the floor was not large enough for stadium football. What was the real reason the Blue Cats abandoned Roberts and Evansville?
If indoor football returns to Roberts Stadium (it’s certainly the correct path)it will be just one of many tenants. Since 2010, I have been contacted by the following team about wanting to move into the facility…
http://saverobertsstadium.blogspot.com/2012/01/our-evansville-rage-have-released-their.html
If indoor football comes to Roberts Stadium, it will be because we chose the “mid-sized arena” path. As a result many things will be different.
When the Bluecats played at Roberts, they paid $10,000 up front ($20,000 after all expenses) and received NO concession stand revenue. This is bc Roberts was the premier arena at the time and SMG/the city leveraged this. This same thing would happen at the Ford Center which no indoor football team needs/can afford anyways. They need a smaller venue.
You are correct about the floor. However, a mid-sized Roberts entails raising the floor inorder to be able to eliminate the costly pumps and scaling back the seating capacity to roughly 5,000 to 6,000 seats in order to solve the “economy of scale” for mid-sized events. As a result, the floor space will be MUCH MUCH wider.
In regards to ticket sales, the Bluecats avg 2,100 to 2,500 tickets a game which isn’t bad considering they never won more than a handful of games. If they sell this many tickets at a scaled down Roberts, they will be almost at 50% capacity right off the bat.
Keep in mind, with a mid-sized arena, multiple groups win. The investor from the team above wants to rent the facility for indoor lacrosse, soccer, minor league basketball, and mid-sized concerts.
Those who want travelling BM tournaments can rent the facility as well. They say they can fill 148 dates.
We can couple all of this with high school basketball tournaments, trade shows (defunct Boat Show), youth sports, and….
USI basketball is the main tenant I want to see @ Roberts.
Their division in the GLVC is moving up. NKU and KWC are already leaving. Bellarmine and Indy are already whispering about it. We need to start to look at USI’s long term future.
Roberts Stadium comes with zero debt and 15 corporate luxury boxes therefore USI instantly improves their program without having to use money that should be spent on other teams.
If we do a long range master plan everyone wins (see the following post) and it makes much more sense financially…
http://saverobertsstadium.blogspot.com/2012/01/post-public-hearing-1-thoughts.html
These appear to be rather amateur calculations based on a series of assumptions. Has any credible feasibility study been launched based on more than mere speculation? To suggest that past figures have any relevance with the changing economy and a new state of the art facility in place seems irresponsible.
At present, the tally over at the C&P poll is about 40% think Roberts Stadium is worth saving, and about 60% don’t think Roberts is worth saving.
Over here at CCO the poll results are a bit more curious. About 50% of the respondents say they won’t attend one of the several stadium task force meetings due to lack of interest, 38% say they won’t attend but “would if they could,” hahahaha! What could possibly prevent 38% of the respondents from attending one of the several meetings when the times and location of the meetings are conveniently and flexibly scheduled? That 38% really should be lumped in with the complacently disinterested other 50%.
But at least there are 10 CCO readers who have or plan to attend one of the meetings. Can we make it an even dozen?
Oh, and the head honcho of the task force told the C&P reporter that he was pleased there weren’t but 40 people show up at the meeting last night at the Centre, because he didn’t want to be “mobbed!” I guess he was expecting the Tea Party or the Occupiers to bus them in.
http://www.courierpress.com/polls/2012/jan/RobertsPoll/results/
At 4:30 with 900 votes counted, the C&P poll shows 65% against to 35% for saving Roberts Stadium.
Coincidently the breakdown at CCO right now is 65% could care less and 35% say they will attend one of the meetings. Hmmmm ….
Correction: The CCO poll shows 83% could care less about Roberts, while 17% say they will attend one of the meetings. Where are all the folks who flooded this blog with SOS messages during the 2011 City Election?
It seems to me that the question should be what does Evansville need that Roberts could provide. I have heard many ideas that are quite good and some that make no sense at all. I hope that Evansville can stop the negativity and give this committee and the people who want to speak a chance to do their work. The remark above from one of the “administrations most well-known and fervent supports” was really uncalled for.
It is my belief that the land on which Roberts sits and Roberts itself belong to the people of Evansville. Should Roberts have a use, then go for it. Should it be found unusable, then the land should become part of Wesselman Park. Pure and Simple.
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