Caitlin McGlade had a story in the Arizona Republic of May 28, 2014 entitled Glendale to collect less than projected on Coyotes Accord. I found the spin by stakeholders fascinating. For instance, Monty Jones, of Global Spectrum and general manager of the arena, had the following to say about the non-hockey events booked into the arena this year, “it had a successful year.” Wow. They set the bar so low that no one can see it. Seven non-hockey, revenue earning events is embarrassing when the anticipated number of non-hockey, revenue producing events was in the 20’s. Jones went on to say, “The company hopes to book more events next year.” I hope to win the Pulitzer Prize next year but it isn’t going to happen. So far, it’s not looking so good for Mr. Jones, et.al., with 5 non-hockey, revenue producing events booked in the arena for next year.
Parking revenues continue to be a problem for IceArizona and the city with cheaper parking available at the Cardinals’ stadium and another 3,000 free spaces throughout Westgate. Who would have guessed? After all the ink on the management agreement was barely dry when the Cardinals announced that they would undercut the Coyotes parking charge and the Westgate manager announced that there would be no change in their policy of keeping spaces free during hockey games.
The article went on to say Councilmember Sherwood’s solution was, “that the city consider blocking off a road to make it more difficult to access those lots (stadium lots) during arena events. Councilmember Martinez seemed to think it’s an idea worth considering and said of blocking access, “(it) probably crossed most of our minds.” Those minds would be the four councilmembers who voted for the arena management agreement: Sherwood, Knaack, Martinez and Chavira.
Sherwood’s cock-a-mammy idea of using governmental authority to directly impact a private business in competition with the city is akin to asking for a law suit. What are they thinking? Are they thinking?
© Joyce Clark, 2014
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Couple of things Joyce….
First, booking events to an arena the size of jobing.com Arena takes quite a bit of lead time (anywhere from 7-9 months I’ve been told by people who do that sort of thing.) With Global coming on board only after Ice Arizona secured the deal, they did about about as well as they could expect. So from their perspective they could say it was successful for them. The next twelve months will tell the real story if they can bring non-hockey revenues up where it’s needed.
The other item is the obvious rift between the city council and the Cardinals. Siphoning parking revenues from the hockey team on game night certainly doesn’t do much for their popularity, but at this point, threatening to close Maryland Ave off for arena events is just going to widen that rift.
I have talked to many who handle event bookings. The major problem is not lead time to book but rather that there are contractual relationships between certain Valley venues such as Cricket Pavilion (it’s got a new name and I can’t recall it at the moment) and event promoters such as AEG. Global Spectrum and the arena have no such relationship with these other entities.
I am no fan of the Bidwills (I like the Cardinals football team) and they have no love for me. But even I recognize how ridiculous it was to even consider closing Maryland Avenue. So, again, I ask what were they thinking?
Was 23 non-hockey events a specific target for the first year, or intended to be representative for a generic year? I seem to recall it being the latter, and that does make a big difference, even considering the sorts of venue/promoter contractual relationships you discuss above.
Yes, they have 5 non-hockey events scheduled so far for FY2015 … 5 major non-hockey events … in about a 50 day span. That’s an average of one big-name event every 2 weeks. I highly doubt they’ll sustain that rate over the full year, but even if the average time between major events doubles, that’d be a pretty good state of affairs and could easily be fleshed out with smaller events to 23+. Sure, sure; rosy glasses, I know. It’s far too early to say FY2015 will be a success in terms of non-hockey events. But it’s equally premature for all the doom and gloom.
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The parking revenue shortfall mentioned in the article doesn’t sound like a parking issue, it sounds like the same non-hockey events issue. Everyone was worried that free Westgate parking and cheaper Cardinals parking would eat Glendale’s lunch money, but parking revenue from hockey events is on track to be within $50k of projections. And that’s also despite a depressingly underperforming team out on the ice for most of the season. Parking competition from nearby lots appears to be a non-issue. Closing streets to restrict parking competition is more than unnecessary, it’s a bad idea all around, considering the animosity such a move could easily foster among John Q Public. The city needs to work to make people feel good about coming to Westgate for events, not make them feel like they’re being taken advantage of.
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It’s been apparent from the beginning that this arena deal will live or die by the non-hockey events they are able to pull together. And GS will have to do -much- better going forward than they did in FY2014. But there is a significant lead time to booking events and it does take time to establish your presence in the region and compete with promoters like AEG who have been in the Phoenix area for a while; the first partial year cannot reasonably be considered representative of future years. Personally, I see the 5 major events already on the calendar for FY2015 as an encouraging sign, but yes, they do need to flesh it out much further.
I think my next blog will respond to a lot of the comments that you offer with the exception of the Cardinals/Westgate/Arena parking issue. I think you will learn that much of the new “enhanced revenues” are not new at all and were paid in a totally different scenario, more favorable to Glendale.
A little unfair on the non coyotes events.Why,because acts book there events in JUne or July of 2013 for 2014.So be fair we lets see what they do in June and July.They can’t help they took over in aug just saying..
I don’t think I am being unfair. Global Spectrum had 5 months in 2013 to book for 2014. I asked some in the industry to confirm your assertion that they book exclusively in June and July. Was told they book all year long. No, I think there is intense competition in the Valley for events because of the large number of venues. Many of these venues have exclusive contracts with the major bookers like AEG.
I guss you forgot the 8 games of rattlers football.If I last checked is a non Hockey event..Plus less not forget last i checked they took aug when events where booked all across there Valley already.Makes little sense to keep going after them for something they could not control..If glendale would got off there butts and did there Job .The deal would signed way before blame the city not Ice az for everything.