azdad1978
Championship!!!!
Pat Flannery
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 15, 2004 12:00 AM
It was a venue built for hockey, but Glendale Arena probably will celebrate its first anniversary hosting everything but the game for which it was intended now that the National Hockey League's labor dispute is coming to a head.
With the NHL's collective-bargaining agreement expiring at midnight tonight and no new deal between team owners and players in sight, the loss of at least the early part of the coming season seems ensured.
Without the Phoenix Coyotes as a reliable anchor tenant in the weeks ahead, the 18,000-seat arena must find and book events to fill at least some of the 44 hockey nights scheduled over the next seven months. It will not be easy because nobody knows when the dispute might end, making commitments to other events far in the future a dicey proposition.
"It's a disaster," said David Carter, a Los Angeles sports business consultant. "If you're a venue operator, you have a real difficult situation on your hands."
But Glendale officials say they have planned for this day by finding concerts and other backup events to draw crowds. They also say the city can temporarily pay its arena-construction debt without the shared parking revenue and sales-tax revenue that hockey games would normally provide. The city expects to make up that revenue in the future, City Manager Ed Beasley said, under a clause in its revenue-sharing agreement with the Coyotes that extends the deal in the event of a work stoppage.
"In the financial scenario, an additional year of revenue had been placed in there," Beasley said.
Still, this is not what the city had in mind when it struck its deal with developer and Coyotes co-owner Steve Ellman to build the arena at 91st and Glendale avenues. The arena opened last December.
The city contributed $180 million of the arena's $215 million cost, banking on a busy venue to be an economic-development catalyst. The city hopes to recoup its investment through shared revenue from arena activities and indirect revenue from nearby development and retail activity.
How long the lockout lasts is anyone's guess. Pointing to team financial losses, owners today want salaries capped to keep costs in check in a new labor agreement. The NHL Players' Association has offered salary cuts but objects to salary caps. With negotiations at a standstill, some analysts say the strike could last the season.
The home preseason is slated to start Oct. 1, and the regular-season home opener, one of 41 regular-season homes games, is scheduled for Oct. 13.
The arena's general manager, Ron Woodbridge, said several prospects for backup events in the coming weeks already are being explored.
"We've got some backup events . . . if hockey doesn't become a reality," Woodbridge said. "We're always looking for backup events, so we put up 'second holds' on some events."
The intent is to fill in hockey nights with family shows, concerts, other sporting events or trade shows, though filling every one with an alternative is unlikely. Arena managers can work only a short time in advance of a date because of uncertainty about when the dispute might end.
If there is a silver lining, it is this: The city's deal with Ellman entitles it to a larger percentage of revenue from non-hockey events than from hockey games. Beasley said that could increase city revenue in the near term if enough large events, such as concerts, replace hockey.
If not, the city will tap interest earnings and contingency funds from its arena-construction bonds and revenue generated by new economic activity near the arena to service this year's $8.1 million in arena debt.
The team, meanwhile, will provide refunds to season-ticket holders for games lost, paying interest to some who paid in full earlier this year.
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/coyotes/0915hockeystop150.html
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 15, 2004 12:00 AM
It was a venue built for hockey, but Glendale Arena probably will celebrate its first anniversary hosting everything but the game for which it was intended now that the National Hockey League's labor dispute is coming to a head.
With the NHL's collective-bargaining agreement expiring at midnight tonight and no new deal between team owners and players in sight, the loss of at least the early part of the coming season seems ensured.
Without the Phoenix Coyotes as a reliable anchor tenant in the weeks ahead, the 18,000-seat arena must find and book events to fill at least some of the 44 hockey nights scheduled over the next seven months. It will not be easy because nobody knows when the dispute might end, making commitments to other events far in the future a dicey proposition.
"It's a disaster," said David Carter, a Los Angeles sports business consultant. "If you're a venue operator, you have a real difficult situation on your hands."
But Glendale officials say they have planned for this day by finding concerts and other backup events to draw crowds. They also say the city can temporarily pay its arena-construction debt without the shared parking revenue and sales-tax revenue that hockey games would normally provide. The city expects to make up that revenue in the future, City Manager Ed Beasley said, under a clause in its revenue-sharing agreement with the Coyotes that extends the deal in the event of a work stoppage.
"In the financial scenario, an additional year of revenue had been placed in there," Beasley said.
Still, this is not what the city had in mind when it struck its deal with developer and Coyotes co-owner Steve Ellman to build the arena at 91st and Glendale avenues. The arena opened last December.
The city contributed $180 million of the arena's $215 million cost, banking on a busy venue to be an economic-development catalyst. The city hopes to recoup its investment through shared revenue from arena activities and indirect revenue from nearby development and retail activity.
How long the lockout lasts is anyone's guess. Pointing to team financial losses, owners today want salaries capped to keep costs in check in a new labor agreement. The NHL Players' Association has offered salary cuts but objects to salary caps. With negotiations at a standstill, some analysts say the strike could last the season.
The home preseason is slated to start Oct. 1, and the regular-season home opener, one of 41 regular-season homes games, is scheduled for Oct. 13.
The arena's general manager, Ron Woodbridge, said several prospects for backup events in the coming weeks already are being explored.
"We've got some backup events . . . if hockey doesn't become a reality," Woodbridge said. "We're always looking for backup events, so we put up 'second holds' on some events."
The intent is to fill in hockey nights with family shows, concerts, other sporting events or trade shows, though filling every one with an alternative is unlikely. Arena managers can work only a short time in advance of a date because of uncertainty about when the dispute might end.
If there is a silver lining, it is this: The city's deal with Ellman entitles it to a larger percentage of revenue from non-hockey events than from hockey games. Beasley said that could increase city revenue in the near term if enough large events, such as concerts, replace hockey.
If not, the city will tap interest earnings and contingency funds from its arena-construction bonds and revenue generated by new economic activity near the arena to service this year's $8.1 million in arena debt.
The team, meanwhile, will provide refunds to season-ticket holders for games lost, paying interest to some who paid in full earlier this year.
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/coyotes/0915hockeystop150.html
