Since this whole debate of what to do with Roberts Stadium has begun, all we've heard is " O the costs of maintaining it are going to be too high to preserve it." This has been proclaimed by the Mayor's office, by the EVCB, and last week by the Evansville Parks department. They claim that it costs $390,000 to maintain Roberts Stadium (A figure I'm still waiting to see on a balance sheet).
To seek out the truth on this issue, I began researching some of Roberts Stadium's events that I believe would still be better at Roberts Stadium instead of the new arena. For example, the Tri-State Home Show, the Hadi Shrine Circus, and the Boat Show all need more staging space and/or parking lot display space, so they would not be in competition with the new arena.
I could not find any financials on the Hadi Shrine Circus but I did find this link that shows that 40,943 people attended the circus. In comparison, nearby softball/baseball complexes are only drawing 40,000 people a year.
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2009/nov/22/circus-tradition/
This then took me to my next event: The Tri-State Home Show. This is where all the drama has begun. I visited their website which was both a stand alone website as well as a link on the Courier Press's website since they co-sponsor it. On their website, Carolyn Franklin was listed as the event manager. There was also a diagram of Roberts Stadium with all the booth layouts as well as pricing figures for both indoor and outdoor tents and booths. It seemed to me that the revenue from this one event would be enough to either offset the $390,000 maintenance costs or at least knock a significant chunk of it off so that the facility wouldn't need to generate as much the rest of the 362 days of the year.
In an effort to make sure that my research was spot on, I emailed Carolyn Franklin asking to sit down with her for just a brief meeting where we could talk about the Home Show and I could figure whether it would indeed put a huge dent in the maintenance costs.
As of right now, I have received ZERO emails back from her. But it gets even more interesting. Suddenly, within the 24-48 hours after I sent the email, their website vanishes. The website, which promises 12 month advertising and had been on there since the event back in April had its plug pulled. As of this post, when you visit the site http://web.courierpress.com/static/tristatehomeshow/event/ you get a 404 message.
So why would they pull this website after my request? I believe it's for several reasons. First of all, Carolyn Franklin is an employee of the Evansville Courier & Press who has come out not only in support of the new arena ( I do too) but also in favor of demolishing Roberts Stadium (ironically it came out the day after my article calling for Roberts Stadium to be saved). They don't want anything showing that Roberts Stadium should be saved.
Secondly, this website showed a good chunk of financial data on the Home Show. Apparently, they do not know that you can simple Cache a page to bring it back up. Take a look yourself...
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:OBM6gulNxS0J:web.courierpress.com/static/tristatehomeshow/event/booths.html+tristate+home+show+page+booths&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
As you can see, there are four different price ranges for booths and tents.
Stadium A
8' X 10' booth
Includes 31 1/2" of advertising to run between March 29 - April 5, 2009
12 month Enhanced Listing on tristatehomeshow.com
$2,150
Stadium B
10' X 10' booth
Includes 42" of b/w advertising space to run between March 29 - April 5, 2009
12 month Enhanced Listing on tristatehomeshow.com
$2,507
Tent A
15' X 35' booth
Includes 18" of b/w advertising to run between March 29 - April 5, 2009
12 month Enhanced Listing on tristatehomeshow.com
$1,715
Tent B
30' X 35' booth Includes 30" of b/w advertising to run between March 29 - April 5, 2009
12 month Enhanced Listing on tristatehomeshow.com
$2,507
Also, outside displays are available too.
Outdoor Display: $400 (no electricity available). Prime outside display areas are available surrounding the stadium and the massive tent. Areas include sidewalk and grass areas around stadium and parking lot areas close to the tent. Sizes of display area can be 20' x 20', 40' x 30', 10' x 100' and much more depending on location and needs.
The diagram of Roberts Stadium had 88 booths on the main floor and I'm not sure on the bottom floor but I want to say 70 (don't quote me on that part). The lower level has more room to expand out than the set 88 booths on the main level so there really isn't a set amount of booths for the lower level. So, we'll say all in all, there are 160 booths, 88 on the main level, 72 on the lower level.
To equal $390,000, we would need to get $2437.50 a booth, which is below the $2,507 fee for large booths but a little higher than the $2,150 for the smaller booths. We would need to set a figure that would contain the proper amount of 10' x 14' booths and 10' x 10' booths.
Now, this does NOT calculate the $2,507 tents and $1,715 tents on the outside, it does not calculate the $400 no electricity tents on the outside, and it does not calculate the revenue from sponsors either. Nor does it calculate the revenue from ticket sales or concession stand revenue. The reasons why I left these figures out is because there are no exact diagrams showing how many tents you can put outside and there are no figures for ticket sales, thus, I did not want to blindly speculate. I also want to leave a cushion to cover the expenses from the three days this event takes place which may or may not be calculated into the $390,000 costs for keeping Roberts up.
What I want this to show you is this: The Mayor, the EVCB, and the Parks Department could have very easily looked at these figures I'm showing you and would have came to the conclusion that an event that takes up a mere 3 days would cover the majority of Roberts Stadiums expenses alone. They have chosen to ignore this inconvenient truth and instead have gone on the record time and time again claiming that there is no saving Roberts Stadium. They have claimed that it will cost $90 million to fix Roberts Stadium but it will not, those are costs to convert it to a new arena. To keep the Home Show, Circus, and other events we do not need a new roof, do not need more bathrooms, and we do not need to add luxury suites. We simple need to leave it as is.
Another important thing I want to stress is that keeping the Home Show at Roberts Stadium would not compete with the new arena. The Home Show needs tents outside to make money. There is no parking lots outside the new arena. Furthermore, I am willing to personally volunteer my time to help the city get the Bluecats back, get a NBDL team here, and work on getting USI & the NCAA Div II to play basketball there. It does not have to be "Roberts Stadium vs New Arena," and it certainly doesn't have to be "Tear down Roberts Stadium or lose money."
The next time a city official tells you there is no hope for Roberts Stadium, ask them to show you how much money the Home Show makes!
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