BREAKING NEWS: Geary Claims Evansville’s Hockey Team In Jeopardy

1. how much can the city afford to keep spending to subsidize the Ford? The TIIF district isn’t generating enough income to pay the bills and we are expecting to pay for a hotel and a medical school. If people had wanted the stadium where it is it should be making money. If the Icemen were a product we wanted there would be nightly sellouts and Geary would be making a profit. I’m glad not to be a part of that tax base anymore.

2. …let the schadenfreude begin.
   What is REALLY going on here? “Company A” is negotiating its lease with “Landlord B” because its lease is up. That is what this article is about. It is a lease negotiation.
   But “V” waits, everyday, to tell us how much he wants to leave Evansville, and he, and perhaps some others, are gonna find a way to use some lease negotiations as part of their narrative:
   “I’m a rat, and I’m looking for another ship.”
   Have at it. Coffee’s brewing.

   • So people who move away to find opportunity elsewhere are considered rats to you? People who simply move, are they being traitors? If people were loyal to Evansville, they would stay here, and suffer? They should stay and suffer, even though they could move to be near other family who left? What point are you trying to make here? People have the freedom to leave, and shouldn’t expect such venom for doing so.

     • Ron Geary has been pulling the same thing with Ellis Park. How many times has he threatened to close Ellis Park? Almost every year.

       I’m not saying he won’t leave Evansville, he doesn’t have a loyal bone in his body.

     • Geary plays the “I’m losing money and going to close down” with every company he runs. Ever hear of Ellis Park?

     • LETS….of course not, w/in the parameters you discussed in your post.

       But let’s be clear, LETS, “V” and others here have been embellished PLENTY (and that’s being kind) that for all kinds of reasons (like losing the votes of 62% of the voters in the last election), they are (sic) “leaving town because it is a sinking ship” and all kind of other “those grapes were sour anyway” kind of comments.
       Those are the arguments of LOSERS, of course.
       But the point is apt: V might as well say “I’m a rat, and I’m looking for another ship.”
       Don’t let the door hit you in the butt.
       Evansville is a great place to raise a family, work and be happy!
       (Some people have problems totally unrelated to their political lot in life…but still blame everyone else.)

       • Weak.

   • Your a total piece idiot, I thrive on the east coast of America fool, what you think you know you do not, idiot.

3. It’s understandable that Mr. Geary wants to make money,–Obviously the Fan Base is not as great as Geary, or The Politicos, imagined it would become when he signed the first lease.
   What Evansville has here is a “Lose-Lose” situation.
   “The John” will continue to lose money every year, and changes to the lease agreement will have absolutely no bearing on increasing the fan base, –which is the “Bottom Line” problem for his business, and “The John”.

   • Crash, you speak the truth

4. So now we have an arena that looks goofy set up for basketball and 3 concerts per year. What a disastrous failure.

5. Negotiating since February and the deadline is 2 weeks away? If the city loses the Icemen team, we might as well board up the Weinzapfel Center.

   And the mayor is stunned to hear there’s a problem?

   • The mayor has been busy picking up trash and working on other campaign issues.

6. ” Now that lease is set to expire and we need to be treated fairly in the new lease,” said Ron Geary, owner of the IceMen.”

   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

   That is really all you need to know about this issue. Weinzapfel and his obviously lame group of financial forecasters sold the taxpayers a bill of goods, which is standard operational procedure for a crony capitalist city administration. Now it is time for the taxpayers to pony up again by picking up the difference between what Weinzapfel said the arena would bring in, and what it actually brings in, so the annual debt service payments can be made.

   “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” (Marmion, Walter Scott)

   • ‘…But when we practice for a while,
     how vastly we improve our style’.

     Make no mistake, Geary still wants table games at Ellis. He would cannibalize the revenue from the very casino that pays the bills and allows monuments to our recent mayors to be built. Better get the Tropicana on dry land quick, before Kentucky lets Geary have his way and go full-blown casino.

     Previous owners of Dade/Ellis made money. If Geary can’t I’d suggest he couldn’t run a brothel in a gold rush. Look for the city to cave. The public announcement will bear little resemblance to what actually got signed. Below is a partial article from the Louisville Courier/Journal describing Geary’s negotiating tactics, replete with foot stomping.
     http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080702/BUSINESS/80702026/-1/rss

     • You really make a good point about Geary’s tactics. When negotiating is done between the likes of him and Winky, it can get interesting. I expect the taxpayers will get the shaft, as the Poop considers us to be a bottomless pit of money. He won’t worry about a bigger debt for us.
       You’re also right about Geary and the Tropicana. It really doesn’t matter if it is on land or water, if Kentucky gives him table games, Evansville is pretty much done for.

7. The real question is how it compares with the UofE lease? I can’t imagine the rate is as high considering actual attendance is about 1500-1800 a game. 3200 men/ 400 women.

   • I remember seeing the UE lease about 4 years ago. I am going on memory but I think it was around $11,000 per game. The Icemen have 36 home games scheduled this year plus any playoffs so at $650,000 per year they would be paying $18,000 per game. We shall see what the negotiation brings.

8. So assuming the truth is being told the Icemen have lost an average of $600,000 per year and the Ford Center loses $300,000 per year from operations. Throw in UE and some concerts and the number may grow to over a million. This is a lose-lose situation and given to summation of losses there is no solution that makes everyone a winner. The negotiation is about equalization of losses. Geary of course has the option of shutting down the team or leaving town. Such an action will add the $650,000 a year in rent to the city’s losses. The hollow promises and projections from the Chema study about the cash flow of the Ford Center was off by an unacceptable amount. Can Evansville get a refund on that study?

   One more thing, these losses do not include servicing the debt which is reportedly $8 Million per year. Over a 30 year period the losses of the Ford Center could have paid for about 35% of the sewer system repairs. Andrew Smith was a prophet who was driven from Evansville by “the Machine” for his correct prophesy. I guess that makes him another “traitor” with a high capacity for success. Evansville produces some great people. Why is it that the real achievers for the most part leave town to achieve greatness?

   • Yup, the ___ord center what a joke.

9. Let the Thunderbolts take over the Icemen rink. It ain’t the NHL, and minor league is pretty much all the same so long and there’s goal and fights. It’s the in-arena atmosphere that makes people show up or not.

   • Good plan, Laga! I don’t think the Fearless Leader will allow that to happen, though, unless the Thunderbolts can cough up a few hundred grand for the Ford’s use.

     This is going to be interesting to watch. It appears there is no “good faith” on the part of either side in this bargaining. Geary does have a habit of threatening to close down and Winky seems to think Evansville is a lot more “vibrant” than it really is, so this negotiation figures to be pretty spectacular. I’m guessing the Icemen will stay, but it will come right down to the wire. The taxpayers can afford to lose a few hundred thousand more a year.

10. The Icemen is interfering with all the top name rock bands waiting to come to our new arena.

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