Concessions and other events could sweeten the pot

Today the City County Observer received a message asking us to consider what it would take to get Roberts Stadium into the kind of shape needed to make it a good home for the Evansville Icemen. The IceMen as has been widely reported draw between 1,000 and 1,500 fans to the Swonder Ice Arena and play about 38 games per year. It has also been widely reported that the IceMen are having serious difficulty in negotiating an agreement with the City of Evansville that will enable them to survive financially in the early growth years. So, would Roberts Stadium be an attractive alternative?

With respect to the price to play it seems as though the City of Evansville is really looking to find a way to collect about $11,000 per game when the agreement for the Evansville Aces and the fixed fee offer that they made to the IceMen. The cost to the IceMen to be the home team for the Arena will therefore gravitate to a number of about $418,000 per year. If the owner of the IceMen Ron Geary wishes to see his investment payoff in 10 years then on rental fees alone he would be justified in spending $4.2 Million to get Roberts into hockey ready condition.

The Icemen would have two other income streams. The first would be the concessions for IceMen games and the second would be renting Roberts Stadium out for other venues that are more appropriate for Roberts than they are for the new downtown Arena. At an income stream of $5 per person per game on hockey alone the IceMen could count on $665,000 per year coming in from concessions. Let’s assume that the profits from concessions will cover the cost to operate a refurbished Roberts Stadium. If one event per month were held at Roberts that did not compete with the Arena at a rate of $5,000 per event plus concessions then another $100,000 could be harvested from such events.

This may just work and it may be the best financial move possible for the IceMen. Of course in the spirit of fairness the City of Evansville that will save $1.5 Million in demolition fees could easily make a $1 Million investment in Roberts refurbishment and grant 10 year tax abatement as they have been doing for every downtown project of any kind.

Of course this is a preliminary idea and would need to undergo a rigorous due diligence study but since John Kish has been adamant that the new Arena will not be hurt by the IceMen’s departure we think that Mr. Geary may be well served to consider Roberts Stadium for $1 as an attractive alternative to dealing with the City of Evansville for the next 20 years. Maybe the Weinzapfel Administration will see this possible Win-Win situation through the eyes of an entrepreneur as opposed to the eyes of government.

The City of Evansville through its Mr. Everything John Kish has now co-opted the cover of the Courier and Press to take its deal to the people of Evansville. There are a couple of things that are very clear that the City of Evansville needs to not be stuck with the unenviable task of having to do a public mea culpa in the first year of operation if the taxpayers of Evansville are asked to subsidize the operation of the Arena.

Let’s recap what is needed to satisfy the pro-forma that is published on the Arena Website. The City of Evansville projects that there will be 3,500 people at each of the 38 hockey games in the new Arena. The city furthermore projects a ticket price of $12 per ticket. Recently the city has come forward with what they really need which is $7,000 per game for rent.

The math works out very easy. At the official projection of the City of Evansville’s pro-forma they will need $2 per ticket to get their $7,000. The City County Observer respectfully supports exactly that revenue sharing for the agreement between the city and the IceMen. The only other issue to discuss is the sharing of the concessions profit. As the IceMen are the main reason that human beings will be in the Arena for these 38 games it is reasonable and even customary that the team share in the concession profits.

The City County Observer respectfully suggests the following contract between the City of Evansville and the IceMen.

1. The City of Evansville will receive $2 for every ticket sold to an IceMen game. There is no minimum or maximum to the revenue that the City of Evansville shall receive.
2. The City of Evansville and the Evansville IceMen shall share the profits or losses associated with the concessions equally after all expenses have been accounted for.

This is our humble and simple suggestion. This arrangement holds the City of Evansville accountable for the projections of 3,500 attendees per hockey game that they sold to the people of Evansville during the sales pitches of 2007. We believe that the source of this projection is Mr. Tom Chema who was hired by the City of Evansville to make the numbers work and reach the conclusion that an arena was needed. If the projections turn out to be garbage it is the Weinzapfel Administration that paid for the garbage and it should be the City of Evansville that bears the risk for its validity.

Our recommendation creates a true partnership that will allow the Evansville Icemen to mitigate the risks associated with stepping up to the challenge of the new and more expensive Arena while creating a situation for the People’s Arena to overachieve as the team builds a bigger fan base. Please consider this and remember the old adage of KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid).

The recommendation of the City County Observer meets all of the needs for everyone unless of course the City of Evansville and its surrogates have bought another PIG IN A POKE. In that case the city gets their pig.

Monday, August 8, 2011
Regular Board Meeting 5:30 P.M.
Board Room, New Administration Building, 951 Walnut Street

2.03 Good News (Vice President Duckworth)
2.04 Public Comment Cards

3. Consent Items (Dr. David Smith)
3.01 Consideration of Minutes of the July 25, 2011 Board meeting
3.02 Consideration of Allowance of Payments
3.03 Consideration to purchase items from Extracurricular Accounts
3.04 Consideration to declare several excess items resulting from administration office moves
3.05 Consideration to approve the driver for bus route C60
3.06 Consideration to petition to Indiana State Board of Education for Funds from the School Technology Advancement Account
3.07 Consideration to approve the change orders for the new North campus

4. Consideration of Personnel Recommendations (Pat Tuley))
4.01 Personnel Recommendations (Smith)

5. Public Comment
5.01 Public Comment

6. Continued Business (Dr. David Smith)
6.01 Continued Business

7. Adjournment

The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation now has a new online service to aid parents in determining bus transportation information for their EVSC students.

For family members with regular school transportation needs, who still have questions following the Connect-ED message sent last Friday night, and postcard sent earlier this week, specific information is available on the EVSC’s new service “eLink.”

eLink can be found on the EVSC homepage at www.evscschools.com.

This service will show a bus number, bus stop and bus transportation times for students who attend a school within the district in which they live. It excludes special circumstances such as special education students, which are individually arranged, and CHOICE transfers. If a student has special circumstances they should call 435-1BUS (2287)

To use the service you must know the grade level of the student, house number and complete street address.

“Andy Dufresne, the memorable character from “The Shawshank Redemption,” has nothing on Gordon Flavia, 56, of Longview…”

Click Here to read the whole article.

Time 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM
Subject DMD Code Enf.
Location Room 318
Reminder 15 minutes
Ron @ 7884

Time 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Subject DISABILITY ADVISORY BOARD
Location 301
Recurrence Occurs the first Friday of every 1 month effective 8/5/2011 until 8/5/2011 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Reminder 15 minutes
BONNIE FOX @ 4927
Categories ROOM 301

Time 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM
Subject ANIMAL CONTROL
Location 301
Recurrence Occurs the first Friday of every 1 month effective 8/5/2011 until 8/5/2011 from 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM
Reminder 15 minutes
SHARON EVANS @ 4982
Categories ROOM 301

Many thanks to Soon2B and trainwreck for the Inspiration

Of course we are openly soliciting a new set of words to make this Evansville’s Own.

IS IT TRUE that the City of Evansville is joining the negotiation with the IceMen through the use of the Courier and Press to forward their position that the Arena’s needs for cash take a superior position to the IceMen’s need for a good business model?…that what the Icemen have been offered is essentially a deal that if they do poorly with attendance that they have to pay more but that if they exceed expectations that they will pay less?…that this is a formula to kill an emerging business?…that if things go poorly they have to pay a higher amount for rent but if they do great they get a break?…that anyone with a shred of business sense would shake their head and just say “give me a break”?

IS IT TRUE that what is needed to help the IceMen grow is exactly the opposite of what the brilliant minds working for the City of Evansville have concocted?…that if ticket sales lag the IceMen need a big break?…that if ticket sales go better than expected (or should I say than the City projected) that the IceMen should pay more?…that we really are starting to wonder what is it about a win-win scenario that our community leaders just do not understand?…that if the IceMen win Evansville should win too?…that if the IceMen suffer at the box office then Evansville should share in the losses?…that we wonder if the deal between the City of Evansville and the IceMen is a partnership or a dictatorship?…that Ron Geary is a seasoned businessman who knows about win-win relationships?…that he is right now in the middle of a negotiation with a collection of simpletons that have never earned a dollar of private profit based money in their lives?…that the City County Observer would like to be a fly on the wall when Mr. Geary tells these guys where to stick this one sided, uncompromising deal that he has been offered?

IS IT TRUE that the leaders of the City of Evansville need to go back to some 8th grade class when the concepts of the free enterprise system and capitalism are taught?…that as long as municipalities elect leaders that know little about the practice of business that they will suffer the consequences of having decisions made and deals put together that would be more at home in the former USSR that they will ever be in a capitalistic society?

IS IT TRUE that there is another situation brewing down at the McCurdy that will reflect very strongly on the lack of business savvy that our Evansville Redevelopment Commission and Mayor Weinzapfel have agreed to?…that we are in the final stages of securing the details of the mortgage situation with respect to this historic property?…that a mortgage on this property is held by the City of Evansville on this property?…that another mortgage is also on the property and that a prominent bank on the Evansville skyline is the mortgage holder?…that the title was transferred to City Centre Properties after the City of Evansville incented CCP with $800,000 in cash and a $603,000 parking lot?…that about a year after the nothing down deal with public money footing the deal that City Centre Properties took out a private mortgage on the McCurdy Hotel in an amount that is larger than the incentive of the City of Evansville?…that if the contract that is now expired is rescinded and a foreclosure proceeding is pursued that the City of Evansville may get absolutely nothing back if the loan that the city holds has been subordinated to the paper held by the prominent bank?…that this arrangement could take years to work its way through the courts, could end up in an auction that brings less than the private mortgage, leaving the City of Evansville out $1,403,000 and with no hotel to show for this inept little exercise?