(lipsticklacebrassknuckles.files.wordpress.com)This past week, we've been hearing quiet whispers from those who support demolishing Roberts Stadium that a mid-sized arena- one that entails raising the floor up, scaling the seating capacity down to approximately 6,000 seats, and placing indoor football, indoor soccer, minor league basketball (ideally NBDL), trade shows, youth sports tournament, mid-size concerts, high school basketball tournaments, and possibly USI basketball games as tenants inside Roberts Stadium- wouldn't be an acceptable plan because it would compete with the Ford Center who can put giant curtains in front of the upper level to make the facility a mid-sized one.
Indeed, the Ford Center (version 2.0) does have giant curtains that can be placed over the upper level to scale the facility back to 6,000 seats. You can see these curtains in action in these photos taken at the Aces HoopFest...
http://www.evansvillesightsandsounds.com/?p=385
So are these curtains proof that Roberts Stadium and the Ford Center would compete with each other? Does this mean that raising the floor at Roberts Stadium and placing mid-sized tenants inside it is a bad idea? Should we just place all of these events at the Ford Center?
While the answer to all of those questions may look like yes on the surface, the real answer to those questions is no. There are several reasons why these beliefs are false. Let's take a look at some of these reasons...
1. The Rent Will Still Be Too High At The Ford Center: As I've said before, the Ford Center is designed for Ace's basketball, Icemen hockey, and premium concerts. Each of these organizations can and should pay the difference in rent between Roberts Stadium and the Ford Center.
Concerts such as Bob Seger and Reba McEntire are not going to go to Roberts Stadium because the capacity wouldn't be large enough, the building's roof isn't strong enough, and there isn't enough luxury suites and amenities to generate a profit at Roberts Stadium. So they will pay the difference in rent to go into the Ford Center.
On the flip side, the events that I mentioned earlier at Roberts Stadium do not need premium amenities that can be found at the Ford Center. Therefore, they need somewhere they can locate their team that is within their budget. If you ask anyone who worked for the Evansville Bluecats, they will tell you that the city, not the attendance, killed the team because the rent demands were too high.
2. Scheduling Conflicts- Not Enough Open Dates: Due to the fact that the Ford Center is already enjoying a great deal of success, many of its dates have already been taken up by the Aces, the Icemen, and premium concerts such as Bob Seger and Reba McEntire. In fact, VenuWorks Executive Director said this in this month's News4U magazine...
http://www.news4uonline.com/articles/2011/11/the-ford-center-interview-with-scott-schoenike.aspx
"Not that the Ford Center won’t be offering plenty of events, especially during the next several months. Schoenike says that every year in October, their busy season will kick off. “We hit it pretty hard starting—we start with Bob Seger, but it starts before that with an exhibition basketball game on November 4th…. In the month of November, there are only really three days once we open up that we don’t have an active event.” In fact, if anything, there may be too much going on. “One of the hardest things is dates—we’ve got two solid tenants. We’ve got 33 hockey games, and this year 19 men’s basketball games and 14 women’s basketball games. There are 66 events that all happen between October and April. Every year, it’s going to be busy between October and April, it’ll be non-stop every year because the Icemen will play here and UE will play here. It’s nice to have that core business. We’ll still have the staple events—Disney on Ice will be in March, monster trucks will be in January, Winter Jam is going to be in February—you’ll see us continually push things out as we book things,” says Schoenike."
In other words, there is no room for NBDL basketball, indoor soccer, indoor football, small trade shows, medium sized concerts, youth sports tournaments, high school basketball tournaments, and possible USI games. The Ford Center has their tenants, Roberts Stadium needs its tenants!
3. It Would Be Physically Impossible For Premium Concerts To Come Back To Roberts Stadium: In order for premium concerts to consider coming to a town's arena, they need certain requirements to be met. They need a roof that can handle their concerts yet Roberts Stadium only has 78,000 pounds of strength versus 180,000 pounds for the Ford Center. They need ample amount of premium luxuries such as luxury boxes, club suites, and party rooms. The Ford Center beats Roberts Stadium in all of those categories as well. Lastly, they need a sufficient loading dock which wouldn't exist if the floor is raised at Roberts Stadium.
Therefore, to suggest that Roberts Stadium will poach any of the Ford Center's tenants is absurd and ridiculous.
4. Eventually, The Ford Center Will Need To Be Expanded: Many residents don't believe that we will need to renovate a facility that has just been built, but they will be surprised at how early the Ford Center will need drastic renovations.
To get the best of the best concerts, host NCAA Division I basketball tournament games, and increase the Ace's popularity, we will need to eventually have more seats than the current 8,000-11,000. At that point, the seating capacity would increase even with the curtains and the rent would be even more expensive than it currently is. Where would the mid-sized events go?
There is one city already at this point- Lexington, KY. Back in 2005, I interned for the Lexington Horsemen indoor football team (They were in the Bluecats league). During that time, discussions on what to do with 24,000 seat Rupp Arena had already begun. UK, which is a basketball dynasty, wanted to build a new arena or renovate Rupp so that it had over 30,000 seats. But teams like the Horsemen, who only drew 3,000-5,000 fans, couldn't afford to make this commitment.
In the end, since only UK wanted a bigger facility, they didn't have the money to get one, and the Lexington Horsemen, who had to use those dreaded curtains at every game, folded. Placing premium college basketball games and premium concerts in the same venue as mid-sized events like indoor football is a mixture for disaster. The two sides need different style arenas.
So while it may seem logical that reusing Roberts Stadium as a mid-sized arena would compete with the Ford Center, in all reality it won't even come close to competing with the Ford Center. Roberts Stadium will tailor to mid-sized, low cost events, while the Ford Center will tailor to higher end, premium events.
For those who thought this would be a good reason to demolish Roberts Stadium, think again! There is no need for Roberts Stadium to take a curtain call!
(http://people.brandeis.edu/~mappingbrandeis/Images/Zipkin_curtains_open_sfw.jpg)
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