(www.real-estate-marketing-link.info)In an era of intense scrutiny over government projects, finding funding to renovate a sports venue or for a completely new one is becoming harder each year. Because of this obstacle, many cities and organizations have begun to get creative with their financing sources. We should do the same.
I have been to many sports venues and have seen many different sources for financing. Some sources produce several thousands of dollars while some may produce only a few hundred dollars. Either way, all of these sources have helped build or renovate facilities that may not get their proper funding otherwise.
The following is a list of funding ideas that I have compiled that I feel we can implement with our Roberts Stadium project. Some of these ideas can produce a sufficient amount of revenue while others can serve as fillers for those last needed dollars...
#1 Sell The Seats That Will Need To Be Removed: If we go with the plan that requires raising the floor so that capacity is scaled down, the pumps are turned off, and the floor is wide enough for football and soccer, we will need to remove at least 5,000-6,000 seats. Instead of throwing these seats away, we need to use them as an asset.
Many ballparks, stadiums, and arenas that have been renovated or demolished have sold their seats to finance their projects. Here are just a few seats removed from various ballparks around the U.S...
http://www.ballparkseats.com/
It has been my belief since day 1 that selling the seats would finance the majority, if not all, of the immediate renovations and a good chunk of raising the floor. However, I have not gone public with this financing model because I did not want this to happen...
http://sports-venue.info/Demolitions/Tiger_Stadium_Detroit.html
Instead of listening to Detroit legend Ernie Harwell and the Tiger Stadium Conservancy ( http://savetigerstadium.wordpress.com/ ), Detroit ended up bowing to political pressure and demolished historic Tiger Stadium. Even worse is the fact that they demolished the stadium with money from those who supported Tiger Stadium. I do not want Roberts Stadium's seats to be a part of city hall's demolition funding!
How much would selling Roberts Stadium's seats yield? Right now, the market for stadium seats ranges from $200 to $400 and upward for a seat from some of America's greatest facilities. Since Roberts Stadium is a much smaller market than those types of facilities, I predict we could get $25 t0 $100 for a seat. If we scale Roberts Stadium down to 6,000 or so seats, this will yield us $150,000 to $600,000 from the 6,000 seats removed.
There is three ways we could go do this...
1. Sell all of the removed seats to the general public.
2. Sell all of the seats to whatever government entity is undertaking the ball fields project (hopefully at Kleymeyer) in exchange for funding from the Innkeepers Tax.
3. Sell some seats to the general public and use the rest for the ball fields project.
If you've ever been to the Mesker Park Amphitheatre, you will see that a lot of the bleachers there are from Roberts Stadium before the last renovation. Wouldn't you rather sit in nice plastic seats than hard medal bleachers if you were attending an outdoor ballgame?
Let's use our removed seats wisely!
#2 Sell The Court In 3x5 Chunks: Currently, I do not know what the status is of the basketball court used by the Aces at Roberts Stadium. One thing I do know is that they will not be able to use it in the new arena since it has Roberts Stadium written on the court, nor do I expect them to use an older court on a new arena's floor.
Some of you may remember that the Aces have done this before...
http://local.evpl.org/views/viewimage.asp?ID=666123
I, like most others around Evansville, wish I could find a piece of the court from that auction!
Why can't we do it again? Why can't we cut the court up in 3x5 pieces and sell them to the public as a fundraiser for Roberts Stadium?
Many teams are doing this around the sports industry. Just to name a few...
University of Illinois
http://store.cstv.com/store_contents.cfm?store_id=479&product_id=183437
University of Connecticut
http://www.fansedge.com/Connecticut-Huskies-2011-Final-Four-12x16-Game-Used-Court-Piece-with-Championship-Bracket-Logo-_517979080_PD.html
Loyola University
http://loyola-chicago-floor.cbscollegestore.com/store_contents.cfm?store_id=493&dept_id=-1&product_id=194086
Syracuse
http://syracusesteiner.suathletics.com/product.aspx?id=874
If the Aces aren't going to use this court, why don't they donate it to Roberts Stadium as a last thank you gift for all of the hard work this stadium has given the university?
How much would this yield? A traditional basketball court is 94' x 50 '. If we cut it into 1,600 pieces like the Aces did in 1982, we can then sell these pieces for $40 to yield $64,000.
If we tack on some more goodies from the Aces, we will have our 1,600 pieces sold in no time. Furthermore, moving this court out of Roberts Stadium will allow us to purchase a new larger court to mold with a Roberts Stadium that would have a larger floor once its floor is raised.
We have a nice Aces basketball court that will go down in history as being the last Roberts Stadium court the Aces played on. Let's take advantage of it!
#3 Build Two Statues And Sell Bricks Around Them: No matter where you go, you will always be next to a building that was built by a non-profit group through a brick campaign.
The sports industry is no different. Many cities, teams, and universities have begun selling bricks to help finance construction of their new facilities. These include...
St. Louis Cardinals
http://mlb.mlb.com/stl/fan_forum/bricks.jsp
War Memorial Stadium
http://www.wmstadium.com/stadium-info/brick-program
Indiana University
http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/sports/c-capital/spec-rel/brick-campaign.html
Creighton University
http://www.gocreighton.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=1000&ATCLID=1147255
Ohio State University
https://www.giveto.osu.edu/igive/stadiumbrick/StadiumBricks.asp?DB_OEM_ID=17300
Georgia Bulldogs
http://www.thegeorgiabulldogclub.com/campaigns/sanford.php
Atlanta Braves
http://mlb.mlb.com/atl/ballpark/abf_legacybrick_form.jsp
University of Missouri-St.Louis
http://blogs.umsl.edu/news/2010/08/03/brickcampaign/
As you can see, brick campaigns are very popular around the U.S. Here in Evansville, we have many, many people that respect Roberts Stadium. Why don't we let them help us keep this building standing?
At the same time we are conducting our brick campaign, why don't we pay tribute to Hank Roberts and Ralph Legeman at the same time? If you ever go to Charlotte's Bank of America Stadium, you will see giant statues of Panthers for their NFL franchise...
http://panthersfanz.com/dg_panther_statue_web.jpg
If you look closely, you will see on the bottom all of the names of those fans who bought PSLs (Permanent Seat Licenses) to get Bank of America Stadium built. This is by far and away the best capital improvement campaign I have ever seen.
At Roberts Stadium, we can construct a statue of Hank Roberts and a statue of Ralph Legeman. Underneath their statues would be nice and shiny name plaque with the names of all of those donors who want to have their name next to Evansville's most popular landmark. This would allow us to reach both those who want to spend a lot and a little by...
1. Selling the plaques for several hundred dollars.
2. Sell the bricks for $100 or less.
With this system, we can make it affordable for everyone to participate in saving Roberts Stadium. Let's do a brick and statue program!
#4 Host Autograph Sessions: One fundraiser that is always popular with the locals is an autograph signing. Here in Evansville, we are always seeing our local sports heroes come back and do autograph signings to help our community. Now, let's ask them to save Roberts Stadium.
There are several different paths we can take with this project. We can...
1. Host a general signing of all of Evansville's sports legends whether it be MLB, NBA, NFL, NCAA, or any other sport.
2. Host a session with only Roberts Stadium and Aces legends and players
3. Unveil a commemorative item of a certain player and have that player sign the item for everyone.
When I attended the University of Kentucky, the Markey Cancer Center joined forces with Makers Mark whiskey bottlers to release a special UK basketball bottle each year. The bottle was a limited edition and whoever was on the bottle would autograph it at an autograph session that was held once a year at the Keeneland racetrack. Here is the Joe B. Hall bottle...
http://news.uky.edu/news/Media/Hxsid2.jpeg
Like other basketball fans, I enjoyed collecting these bottles and getting them signed. I firmly believe that both the Evansville Aces and Roberts Stadium have both the resources and the history to pull off a project like this as well.
We need to get our local athletes involved in saving Roberts Stadium.
#5 Sell Naming Rights To The Four Entrances At Roberts Stadium: Make no mistake, Roberts Stadium is Roberts Stadium and shall always be Roberts Stadium. Hank Roberts served us well and his family name should never ever be taken down from the building.
With that being said, there are places inside Roberts Stadium that we can sell naming rights to without losing the Roberts Stadium name. Take a look at a diagram of Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis...
http://www.colts.com/images/lucasoil_map.jpg
Indianapolis uses this concept perfectly. While keeping the name Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis also sold naming rights to Sprint, HHGregg, Huntington, and Lucas Oil again for the 4 entrance gates. We have the perfect opportunity to do the same.
Roberts Stadium is extremely unique in the sense that all four of its entrances are basically separate rooms. For a fair amount of sponsorship money, we can sell naming rights to all four rooms. Even better is the fact that these four sponsors will be able to deck their room out without bothering the general area of Roberts Stadium, they will be able to stage meetings there without affecting the rest of the stadium, and none of these sponsors will affect the name Roberts Stadium. A win-win for everyone.
#6 Host Benefit Concerts: A few months ago, I was talking with the interested investor about possible funding ideas for Roberts Stadium. One of the ideas he came up with was his deep connections to mid-size concerts. He even said he could have been ready to host the concerts this summer. Unfortunately, we will have to wait til next year to get the concerts going, but the idea is definitely a good one.
Since Roberts Stadium would be hosting a lot of mid-size concerts if its floor is raised, why don't we put on concerts to raise revenue to renovate Roberts Stadium? It would make perfect sense. It would also give the Evansville community a sneak peak at a reinvented Roberts Stadium.
#7 Open Up A Small Roberts Stadium Team Store: One thing that never made it to the market this past year was a line of Roberts Stadium gear. I found that to be quite interesting that very few things with Roberts Stadium on them made it to the market in the final year of Roberts Stadium. I think we need to change that. Would a team store make a ton of money that would be able to handle the majority of our renovations? Probably not. But would it put a fair dent in the amount of money we need to renovate Roberts Stadium? Yes, I believe so.
If you to Rememberthespectrum.com you will see that they did a great job for Philadelphia's Spectrum in its final season.
What would a Roberts Stadium team store have in it? I believe the following should be considered...
-Posters
-Shirts
-Pennants
-Pins
- Sell Replica's of Roberts Stadium. The Book Broker did this promotion with Bosse Field ( I have one) and it went over really well. I'd like to see replica's of the first Roberts, the current Roberts, and the new arena. I have a ton of these replica's and they bring in a lot of money for teams looking to raise funds.
We could do the team store inside the current Roberts Stadium ticket office. The whole system is already set up for us. It would also allow us to set up our shop without having to pay rent to another entity.
Once we raise enough money we can start the renovations. If worse comes to worse, we can ask city hall for the remainder of the . However, if we give an effort to do this taxpayer free AND pitch this as "this your opportunity to come out and support Roberts by buying something" than I feel like we will have a really good plan going forward.
Let's make funding personal, LET'S SAVE ROBERTS STADIUM!
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