Valley
05-06-2005, 03:43 PM
Do Investments in large public entertainment facilities pay off?
A new "market study" for the proposed LVEC further will no doubt further muddy the waters for this extensively touted project. It is interesting to see the continuing evidence across North America that building such facilities does not necessarily lead to public accord and financial success. The greater public interest in low cost, and more accessible, sports such as soccer beg the question of why we should invest in facilities used primarily for professional, for profit sports organizations.
The recent venture of the community of Asheville North Carolina is further evidence of the potential problems with a 'field of dreams' approach to public development of entertainment facilities (see article below).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Altitude hurt by bare seats, empty vows
By John Boyle and
Keith Jarrett SENIOR WRITERS
Asheville Citizen-Times May 5, 2005
ASHEVILLE — The NBA came to Asheville in 2001, promising an exciting brand of minor-league basketball and the marketing clout of one of the nation’s three major sports.
That initial confidence all but guaranteed a transformation of an aging Asheville Civic Center into a thriving entertainment venue. The city assured the league that the arrival of the Asheville Altitude, one of eight National Basketball Developmental League teams, would be the linchpin for major improvements to a building in disrepair.
Four years later, after both sides failed to deliver on those lofty goals, the Altitude are leaving Asheville as a success on the court — two straight championships — and a failure as a business that couldn’t excite fans or advertisers.
“It seems like they didn’t really announce or promote the games,” said Asheville resident Philip Cooper, 20, adding that he prefers the NBA. “They just never really had any fan participation.”
“Personally, I don’t think minor league sports will ever work in Asheville,” said Altitude president Rudy Bourg. “Maybe it’s not a sports town.”
In the excitement of bringing a new sport to Asheville, both sides offered bold statements they couldn’t back up.
“We’re going to need to get 4,500 a night (in attendance) and we’re confident we’re going to be able to do that,” Rob Levine, then an NBA senior vice-president in charge of creating the NBDL, said in January 2001.
In its initial season, the Altitude drew 1,037 fans per game, a figure that steadily declined until last season’s numbers reached 499 per outing.
“We’re going to renovate (or rebuild) no matter what,” said Barbara Field, then a member of City Council, in January, 2001. “We know we have to do something with the Civic Center. That’s a no-brainer.”
Mayor Charles Worley, who was on City Council and spearheaded negotiations with the Altitude along with then-councilman Edward Hay, has long trumpeted renovating the arena. In December 2001, Worley said, “We have got to go forward and do something on that. I want to play a big role in leading us forward to resolve that problem.”
Beyond a few coats of paints and minor repairs, no major work has been done on the Civic Center since those statements were made.
Team couldn’t build
The NBDL began in 2001 with eight teams in the Southeast, confident it could find a niche in cities that didn’t have major college basketball.
All eight original teams were owned by the NBA. With the news this week that Asheville and Columbus have been sold to Southwest Basketball LLC and the franchise in Huntsville, Ala., has folded, the number of league-operated teams still playing four years later is down to two — Fayetteville and Roanoke, Va.
The NBDL, which already has a privately owned team in Fort Myers, Fla., has awarded five expansion franchises that are scheduled to begin play next season in Albuquerque, N.M.; Austin and Fort Worth, Texas; Little Rock, Ark., and Tulsa, Okla., which has rights to the players under contract with the Altitude.
Worley said Wednesday he’s sorry to see the Altitude depart because it leaves the city with one less sports offering. But he doesn’t blame the local community for the team’s failure.
“It looks like their (the NBDL’s) focus changed in terms of NBA-owned franchises and going more to private investors,” Worley said. “It looks like they have a good group of investors in the Southwest (Southwest Basketball LLC). It’s unfortunate such an investment group could not be obtained in Asheville. Perhaps if the team had had local ownership it could’ve spurred more interest in the team.”
Worley believes Asheville is diverse and large enough to support multiple pro teams, and pointed to the Asheville Tourists baseball team as an example of a franchise that’s done a great job of marketing itself. The Tourists are the Class A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies.
“If you look at the Tourists, they’ve got a beautiful marketing plan,” Worley said.
Ron McKee has been with the Tourists for 26 years as a general manager and now president and chief executive officer. His team averaged 2,197 fans a game to McCormick Field last year over 64 dates.
“When we can, we do promotions and giveaways, and we’re real active in the schools and other parts of the community,” McKee said. “Our success has come from listening to our fans and doing what they like us to do.”
“I don’t even like baseball that much, but I like going to Tourists baseball games,” said Zach Sullivan, an 18-year-old Asheville resident and Duke University student who hits about four or five Tourists games a year. In four years, he went to one Altitude game.
Joe Sulock, chairman of the Economics Department at UNC Asheville, has studied sports and its economic impact. While he hasn’t studied the Altitude’s specifics, he suspects the team’s marketing failed to connect the team to the community, and he suspects the relatively cavernous Civic Center didn’t help create an atmosphere fans like.
“It would be like the Tourists playing in Yankee Stadium,” Sulock said.
A basketball fan, Sulock said the Altitude’s lack of local players or even those from the Atlantic Coast Conference, with the exception of former North Carolina standouts Joe Forte and Kris Lang, hurt local interest. Overall, though, Sulock doesn’t see the team’s departure as big news.
“I’m a basketball fan, and it’s a non-event to me.”
Contact Boyle at 232-5847 or
jboyle@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM
-----------------------------------------------
Altitude background
Big expectations arrived with the Altitude in 2001, when the minor-league basketball team began playing in the Civic Center as part of the NBDL. Four years later, the team was sold after winning the past two titles but showing a steady attendance decline.
Could Aces follow Altitude out of Asheville?
By Keith Jarrett
SENIOR WRITER
ASHEVILLE — The Asheville Civic Center could be without a pro sports tenant this winter.
The Asheville Altitude basketball team has been sold and the future of the Aces’ minor-league hockey team is uncertain.
The Aces have asked the city to renegotiate a lease agreement that requires the team to pay rent on a sliding scale based on attendance. In their initial 2004-05 season in Asheville, the team paid $223,425 in rent for 28 home games, an average of nearly $8,000 per game.
Civic Center director David Pisha has said the city won’t begin negotiations on a new lease agreement until the team pays an outstanding bill of about $18,000 from last season.
“The team really needs to step up and pay what is owed,” said Pisha. “The city would accept that as a good faith move to start negotiations for next season.”
Aces managing owner Dr. Richard Hoodenpyle said his team only owes the city $14,000 and that is a debt that should be paid by the team’s previous owner, Florida real estate developer David Waronker.
Hoodenpyle said he and Aces’ co-owners Bill Stewart and Charley Davis planned a conference call Wednesday night to decide the team’s future.
“We’re going to review the lack of action by the city and decide whether or not to make one final push toward re-negotiation of the lease,” said Hoodenpyle, who added the team lost more than $100,000 last season.
He said other options included suspending the team’s operations for next season and then either trying to re-start the team in Asheville for the 2006-07 season or relocate to another city.
The Aces posted a 19-37 record and finished seventh in the eight-team Southern Professional Hockey League last season.
Contact Jarrett at 232-5867 or kjarrett@citizen-times.com.
Altitude loss unlikely to hurt Civic Center finances
Asheville Mayor Charles Worley says he hates to see the Asheville Altitude basketball team leave, but the departure won’t hurt the Civic Center at all economically because the 5,000-seat arena never made much money off of the team.
“It’s going to free up some other dates,” Worley said. “And if you put about two concerts in the arena, you’ll make enough to offset the net revenues from the Altitude. The reality is we’re going to be OK on that end of it.”
The Civic Center received $103,500 from the team this season and about $450,000 in rent over its four-year stay. As attendance decreased, so did revenues from parking and concessions.
Civic Center Director David Pisha said concession revenue from 23 home games in the recently completed 2004-05 season totaled $31,796, with a profit of just $4,070 — or $177 per game.
By contrast, a one-night December 2004 rock concert featuring Asheville native Warren Haynes produced $144,788 in revenue — including more than $100,00 in concessions — and $98,199 in profit.
Six days prior to the concert, an Altitude game lost $327.94.
John Boyle and Keith Jarrett
Goals vs. Reality
2001 goal: Attendance of 4,500 per game
2005 reality: Four-year average: 788 per game
2001 goal: Impetus to improve Civic Center
2005 reality: 31-year-old building virtually unchanged
2001 goal: Help reduce Civic Center deficit
2005 reality: Concession profit: $177 per game this season
2001 goal: Create 8-team pro basketball league
2005 reality: Two original teams remain
A new "market study" for the proposed LVEC further will no doubt further muddy the waters for this extensively touted project. It is interesting to see the continuing evidence across North America that building such facilities does not necessarily lead to public accord and financial success. The greater public interest in low cost, and more accessible, sports such as soccer beg the question of why we should invest in facilities used primarily for professional, for profit sports organizations.
The recent venture of the community of Asheville North Carolina is further evidence of the potential problems with a 'field of dreams' approach to public development of entertainment facilities (see article below).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Altitude hurt by bare seats, empty vows
By John Boyle and
Keith Jarrett SENIOR WRITERS
Asheville Citizen-Times May 5, 2005
ASHEVILLE — The NBA came to Asheville in 2001, promising an exciting brand of minor-league basketball and the marketing clout of one of the nation’s three major sports.
That initial confidence all but guaranteed a transformation of an aging Asheville Civic Center into a thriving entertainment venue. The city assured the league that the arrival of the Asheville Altitude, one of eight National Basketball Developmental League teams, would be the linchpin for major improvements to a building in disrepair.
Four years later, after both sides failed to deliver on those lofty goals, the Altitude are leaving Asheville as a success on the court — two straight championships — and a failure as a business that couldn’t excite fans or advertisers.
“It seems like they didn’t really announce or promote the games,” said Asheville resident Philip Cooper, 20, adding that he prefers the NBA. “They just never really had any fan participation.”
“Personally, I don’t think minor league sports will ever work in Asheville,” said Altitude president Rudy Bourg. “Maybe it’s not a sports town.”
In the excitement of bringing a new sport to Asheville, both sides offered bold statements they couldn’t back up.
“We’re going to need to get 4,500 a night (in attendance) and we’re confident we’re going to be able to do that,” Rob Levine, then an NBA senior vice-president in charge of creating the NBDL, said in January 2001.
In its initial season, the Altitude drew 1,037 fans per game, a figure that steadily declined until last season’s numbers reached 499 per outing.
“We’re going to renovate (or rebuild) no matter what,” said Barbara Field, then a member of City Council, in January, 2001. “We know we have to do something with the Civic Center. That’s a no-brainer.”
Mayor Charles Worley, who was on City Council and spearheaded negotiations with the Altitude along with then-councilman Edward Hay, has long trumpeted renovating the arena. In December 2001, Worley said, “We have got to go forward and do something on that. I want to play a big role in leading us forward to resolve that problem.”
Beyond a few coats of paints and minor repairs, no major work has been done on the Civic Center since those statements were made.
Team couldn’t build
The NBDL began in 2001 with eight teams in the Southeast, confident it could find a niche in cities that didn’t have major college basketball.
All eight original teams were owned by the NBA. With the news this week that Asheville and Columbus have been sold to Southwest Basketball LLC and the franchise in Huntsville, Ala., has folded, the number of league-operated teams still playing four years later is down to two — Fayetteville and Roanoke, Va.
The NBDL, which already has a privately owned team in Fort Myers, Fla., has awarded five expansion franchises that are scheduled to begin play next season in Albuquerque, N.M.; Austin and Fort Worth, Texas; Little Rock, Ark., and Tulsa, Okla., which has rights to the players under contract with the Altitude.
Worley said Wednesday he’s sorry to see the Altitude depart because it leaves the city with one less sports offering. But he doesn’t blame the local community for the team’s failure.
“It looks like their (the NBDL’s) focus changed in terms of NBA-owned franchises and going more to private investors,” Worley said. “It looks like they have a good group of investors in the Southwest (Southwest Basketball LLC). It’s unfortunate such an investment group could not be obtained in Asheville. Perhaps if the team had had local ownership it could’ve spurred more interest in the team.”
Worley believes Asheville is diverse and large enough to support multiple pro teams, and pointed to the Asheville Tourists baseball team as an example of a franchise that’s done a great job of marketing itself. The Tourists are the Class A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies.
“If you look at the Tourists, they’ve got a beautiful marketing plan,” Worley said.
Ron McKee has been with the Tourists for 26 years as a general manager and now president and chief executive officer. His team averaged 2,197 fans a game to McCormick Field last year over 64 dates.
“When we can, we do promotions and giveaways, and we’re real active in the schools and other parts of the community,” McKee said. “Our success has come from listening to our fans and doing what they like us to do.”
“I don’t even like baseball that much, but I like going to Tourists baseball games,” said Zach Sullivan, an 18-year-old Asheville resident and Duke University student who hits about four or five Tourists games a year. In four years, he went to one Altitude game.
Joe Sulock, chairman of the Economics Department at UNC Asheville, has studied sports and its economic impact. While he hasn’t studied the Altitude’s specifics, he suspects the team’s marketing failed to connect the team to the community, and he suspects the relatively cavernous Civic Center didn’t help create an atmosphere fans like.
“It would be like the Tourists playing in Yankee Stadium,” Sulock said.
A basketball fan, Sulock said the Altitude’s lack of local players or even those from the Atlantic Coast Conference, with the exception of former North Carolina standouts Joe Forte and Kris Lang, hurt local interest. Overall, though, Sulock doesn’t see the team’s departure as big news.
“I’m a basketball fan, and it’s a non-event to me.”
Contact Boyle at 232-5847 or
jboyle@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM
-----------------------------------------------
Altitude background
Big expectations arrived with the Altitude in 2001, when the minor-league basketball team began playing in the Civic Center as part of the NBDL. Four years later, the team was sold after winning the past two titles but showing a steady attendance decline.
Could Aces follow Altitude out of Asheville?
By Keith Jarrett
SENIOR WRITER
ASHEVILLE — The Asheville Civic Center could be without a pro sports tenant this winter.
The Asheville Altitude basketball team has been sold and the future of the Aces’ minor-league hockey team is uncertain.
The Aces have asked the city to renegotiate a lease agreement that requires the team to pay rent on a sliding scale based on attendance. In their initial 2004-05 season in Asheville, the team paid $223,425 in rent for 28 home games, an average of nearly $8,000 per game.
Civic Center director David Pisha has said the city won’t begin negotiations on a new lease agreement until the team pays an outstanding bill of about $18,000 from last season.
“The team really needs to step up and pay what is owed,” said Pisha. “The city would accept that as a good faith move to start negotiations for next season.”
Aces managing owner Dr. Richard Hoodenpyle said his team only owes the city $14,000 and that is a debt that should be paid by the team’s previous owner, Florida real estate developer David Waronker.
Hoodenpyle said he and Aces’ co-owners Bill Stewart and Charley Davis planned a conference call Wednesday night to decide the team’s future.
“We’re going to review the lack of action by the city and decide whether or not to make one final push toward re-negotiation of the lease,” said Hoodenpyle, who added the team lost more than $100,000 last season.
He said other options included suspending the team’s operations for next season and then either trying to re-start the team in Asheville for the 2006-07 season or relocate to another city.
The Aces posted a 19-37 record and finished seventh in the eight-team Southern Professional Hockey League last season.
Contact Jarrett at 232-5867 or kjarrett@citizen-times.com.
Altitude loss unlikely to hurt Civic Center finances
Asheville Mayor Charles Worley says he hates to see the Asheville Altitude basketball team leave, but the departure won’t hurt the Civic Center at all economically because the 5,000-seat arena never made much money off of the team.
“It’s going to free up some other dates,” Worley said. “And if you put about two concerts in the arena, you’ll make enough to offset the net revenues from the Altitude. The reality is we’re going to be OK on that end of it.”
The Civic Center received $103,500 from the team this season and about $450,000 in rent over its four-year stay. As attendance decreased, so did revenues from parking and concessions.
Civic Center Director David Pisha said concession revenue from 23 home games in the recently completed 2004-05 season totaled $31,796, with a profit of just $4,070 — or $177 per game.
By contrast, a one-night December 2004 rock concert featuring Asheville native Warren Haynes produced $144,788 in revenue — including more than $100,00 in concessions — and $98,199 in profit.
Six days prior to the concert, an Altitude game lost $327.94.
John Boyle and Keith Jarrett
Goals vs. Reality
2001 goal: Attendance of 4,500 per game
2005 reality: Four-year average: 788 per game
2001 goal: Impetus to improve Civic Center
2005 reality: 31-year-old building virtually unchanged
2001 goal: Help reduce Civic Center deficit
2005 reality: Concession profit: $177 per game this season
2001 goal: Create 8-team pro basketball league
2005 reality: Two original teams remain