Parkview Field to break even?
Posted by John B. Kalb - 7/6/09 @ 12:32 am - Filed Under Uncategorized
Ben Lanka in a column on the front page of the Sunday JG covered how the city ”hopes” that it wil “break-even” in revenue it collects from events after it pays expenses. His analysis fails to cover all the facts as listed below:
Attendance for a First Year at a new stadium has generally exceeded that for all succeeding years. For example, 1993, the first year for the Wizards at the destroyed Memorial Stadium was 318,506 paid fans in 68 home games or 4,684 per game average. The total for the Wizard’s after the first year ran from a high of 278,631 in 2005 to a low of 201,395 in 1999. With 253,564 in 2006, 253,564 in 2006, 237,966 in 2007 and 256,693 last year at Memorial, these are the figures we can predict for future years.
The Tin Caps, for the first 41 games (through This Sunday) have had 199,656 attend of which over 15,794 have been free uncounted tickets, resulting in a net to date of 183,862 (4,484 per game average) toward the 275,000 after which the city gets the agreed $1.00 per attendee for the season. This means that for the remaining 29 regular season games plus a possible 4 playoff games to finish the season, the Tin Caps need another 171,138 paid fans for the City of Fort Wayne just to break even on the $230,000 that it is required to put into the Stadium Maintenance Fund this year. That means that they need to average 5186 paid fans at EVERY one of these 33 games! (This Sunday’s game had an attendance of 4,525 or 661 short of that average!). So, it does not look like they will make it - it may even be difficult to reach the 318, 506 record year(1993) total.
In addition, remember that by the Stadium License Agreement with Hardball, the city has to pay ALL utilities for the stadium - elecricity, gas, water and sewer. A good guess of the amount for a year is about $50,000. So for the city to break even, we will need another 50,000 paid fans in the 33 games remaining or another 1,515 fans per game. That gets us up to a required average of 6,701 paid fans per game, a number which has only been reached at 5 games out of the 41 played this season. Anyone want to guess how much will have to come out of the city’s tax revenues this year? It looks like over $75,000 will be required - AND THIS IS NOT IN ANY PART OF THE CITY 2009 BUDGET!
The city gets NO cut on any of the Hardball event concessions profit - it ALL goes to Hardball!
The city gets none of the yearly lease revenue from the 16 suites - ALL goes to Hardball! Hardball’s first year income from this lease will more than pay the cost of Hardball’s “contribution” of $600,00 toward the cost of the extra 4 suites that were added to the stadium at Hardball’s request. So, in advance, in one year, Hardball gets the $600,000 back - so it is NO COST TO THEM AT ALL!!!
If Hardball/Barry ReaL Estate ever gets to actually build The Harrison, they get to sell (or use) the almost $5 million Indiana State Income Tax Credits - so, again, Hardball/Barry claim to have made a $5 million investment in Parkview Field, when they net out to NO INVESTMENT AT ALL!!!
That means that Hardball/Barry have zilch - nada- zero-nothing invested in the stadium, yet they get ALL PROFITS from it’s operation. So Fort Wayne has invested over $50 million in a new stadium/ parking garage and Hardball Capital who has invested a net of nothing, GETS EVERY CENT OF PROFIT from the city investment.
Can you say, “Boy has Fort Wayne been smart on this deal!” -NO !!!!!
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11 Responses to “Parkview Field to break even?”
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John,
Great job. Just shows you that never ever let the government do or run anything. Always let private business do it. Works for healthcare, stimulus, jobs, banks, etc.
John,
It’s quite sad the nobody in the local media wants to really highlight the truth behind the thievery of Hardball Capital. They take throw-away lines like “deteriorating economic conditions” hook, line and sinker without really getting any details.
What are these clowns waiting for? 2006 ain’t coming back; those days are gone - probably for a generation. Their financing model doesn’t seem to work in the new economy but nobody wants to report that.
It’s the same bunch of BS and platitudes month after month that gets reported. You would think that a bunch a charlatans coming to pillage the community would cause at least a slight bit of outrage amongst the media - alas you would be wrong…
Jeff, good job. I was attempting to write something, but you did an excellent job. Harrision Square is a money pit. The city council just does not see it. The most important aspect of this is where is the money coming from to pay the bonds? Oh, it is the TIF (Tax incremental financing). In other words the area businesses that are in this area, Jefferson Pointe, that pay property taxes do not get used to help with schools, police, fire, roads, maintenance, but these “special” tax dollars go to pay for Harrison Square. In simple terms the down turn in the economy and the looming shortfall in Fort Wayne budgets would be eliminated had they not built Harrison Square and torn down the old stadium.
If 1% TIF is good then why not 100% TIF? Think about what would happen if 100% of Fort Wayne Assessed Properties were a TIF? Not one penny would be available for fire, police, schools, roads, etc, but used soley to fund projects.
So how are we looking on the progress here? You say we needed to average 5186 at the remaining 33 contests, and so far we’re averaging 6048 at those contests. I don’t know how you determine what the paid attendance is vs. the announced attendance, but regardless, 2 things you said would be difficult or impossible have since come to pass (breaking the old record of 318,000+ and averaging over 5186 at the remaining contests). Oh, and we’ve beaten the 6701 number 9 times with at least 8 more home games remaining, all but one of which fall on prime Thursday-Sunday dates.
I can appreciate your watchdog attitude, but this just shows the folly in trying to extrapolate out early season numbers. Looking for the negative in trends will not help the project succeed and thus minimize the impact to your tax dollars. Support the team, enjoy the games! If enough people do that, the problem fixes itself.
Patrick- WELL SAID!
Patrick,
First of all, many people who like the idea of H.S. just do not like the way it was carried by local government. There are many examples which show that our elected officials manipulated or refused to give out information to the public on this. And when things do not go as planned, they simply throw out more disinformation to try and cover their mistakes.
In fact, this method describes the general manner in which major public projects have been handled here for quite some time. So, when you see H.S. (as it is being mishandled by our elected officials) as just one more item in a string of failures, it becomes quite difficult to keep from criticizing.
They set up bogus public hearings, asking for input on these projects. Anyone who opposes them is labeled as negative and is simply dismissed. Then, when their grandiose schemes fail, often because they did not listen to the advice of the “whiners”, then they simply blame those same people for the failure.
Why do none of the H.S. supporters blame Mayor Henry pulling out on his condo bid for part of the failure of H.S.? Why will none of the supporters of Renaissance Point blame it’s eventual failure on the city’s decision to remove the best asset in that neighborhood (police station)? Why, when prudent people simply point out the fact that in today’s market the Renaissance Square building could be gotten at far less than what the city is offering, are those people accused of being negative? Instead, they just blame the people who point out the facts.
You (and many others) seem to view people who are asking prudent questions and demanding honest answers as wanting the projects to fail. And you think our negativity is what leads to the failure. But we see people like you as dangerously naïve. It is exactly because of your refusal to ask hard questions, and your willingness to accept even the most blatant of official misinformation as truth that encourages our elected officials to engage in further folly. And that is what we, the negative whiners, see as the real cause of the failure.
Kevin - Well said! (Does that make me a ditto head?)
Phil - Well said!
Phil or anyone -I saw reference on this or some other blog that the City has decided NOT to notify Hardball that they are in default because that would not help move the project forward. Anyone know where I can find that reference?
How about for once trying to protect the taxpayers’ interest rather than covering their backside for the bad deal they struck?
http://www.fortwayne.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/JG/20090820/LOCAL/308209928
“Leatherman said the city has decided against sending a notice of default to the developer seeking monetary damages. This would not hasten a successful project, he said. He added that a final agreement could include additional concessions for the city.”
I do not know how some people can think that this was a bad investment. Not only did they blow past the old attendence records, but they also increased the amount of people downtown bringing their money along with them. The cost to upkeep the old stadium is one thing that many have forgotten.